Douglas Pharmaceuticals is New Zealand’s largest privately owned pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1967 in Auckland, the Douglas Innovation Building was completed in June 2021.

RDT Pacific was Project Manager from the beginning of the design phase, through procurement and the successful construction of this 4,500 m² facility.

This new building adds significant research and development (R&D) capacity to Douglas Pharmaceuticals and is the largest pharmaceutical R&D facility in the country. It also frees up significant manufacturing space as the R&D facilities are relocated away from the existing manufacturing building.

In addition to multiple specialist R&D spaces, the building has an office, café and warehousing space. It is linked to the existing head office building by a skybridge and is now an integrated part of the Douglas Pharmaceuticals campus in Henderson.

Construction of the new property progressed in two stages. The site was developed first by a specialist civil contractor with tiered car parking and site infrastructure before construction of the building ensued. Being immediately adjacent to both the head office and the existing distribution warehouse, operating on a live site needed to be managed appropriately.

The building itself is a complex, state of the art facility. With multiple clean spaces, hermetic doors and windows, pressurisation of rooms and careful attention to detail was required to ensure no surfaces present a hygiene risk. It has various types of reticulated gases, compressed air and vacuum distributed throughout. Chilled water, hot water and ultra-pure water is generated onsite and distributed around the building.