Local Access, Global Pharmacy

The first thing they tell you in the tour of the CSL Behring Kankakee facility is that the Chicago Bears are practicing in nearby Bourbonnais, Illinois.

The second thing they tell you is not to wander off because the facility is enormous. And it is. Over one point one million square feet currently, and it’s only getting larger. When their new addition opens, it will double the footprint of the business located in Bradley, Illinois.

“We’re obviously the biggest employer in the county,” said Dr. Jim Kavanaugh, the senior scientist in coagulation, and today’s tour guide. “The company employs over 1,600 people here in Bradley.”

A truly global company.

And that’s what has the UIC contingent excited: career opportunity. The tour group is comprised of Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) and Riback Fellows from the College, as well as PhD students interested in a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

Working relationships like this are invaluable learning experiences for the students. It allows them to see other opportunities.

“Touring places like CSL gives UIC students a unique perspective into this area of pharmacy,” said Dr. Lindsey McQuade, Director, Research and Graduate Resources at the UIC College of Pharmacy.

The UIC tour group poses with representatives of CSL Behring.

Being located near the Illinois Pharmacy Corridor, UIC students can gain experiential opportunities that can’t be found anywhere else.

“Working relationships like this are invaluable learning experiences for the students,” McQuade said. “It allows them to see other opportunities.”

CSL, Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, was founded in Australia in 1916 to service the health needs of people isolated by war. CSL Behring, named after Nobel Prize-winning German physiologist Emil von Behring, is the manufacturing wing of CSL. The company is home to 22,000 employees in 35 countries and is the world’s largest collector of plasma.

“Over 40,000 liters of plasma is delivered to this facility daily,” Kavanaugh notes.

The plasma is used for a wide range of recombinant and plasma-derived products for treating bleeding disorders, immune deficiencies and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, as well as hereditary angioedema and Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.

CSL Behring is doing work that will impact health on a global level, and it’s being done right in our backyard.