This story was corrected on June 15, 2011. An explanation follows the story.

For six months, Tasly Group, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company, has been talking to Johns Hopkins University about developing on Hopkins-owned land in the Great Seneca Science Corridor, also known as Science City.

Now, Hopkins is just waiting to seal the deal a $40 million dollar investment. Tasly could eventually bring about 50 new jobs to the corridor, according to Karen Glenn Hood, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

Hopkins had hoped plans with Tasly would be finalized by now, Elaine Amir, executive director of Johns Hopkins Montgomery County, said Wednesday.

The company and the university will next meet at the end of June, she said, and she hopes more specifics will come at that time.

Gov. Martin O’ Malley announced June 2 that Shanghai-based Tasly would invest the $40 million to build a 430,000-square-foot production and training center for traditional Chinese medicine somewhere in Science City, 4,360 acres west of Interstate 270 between Gaithersburg and Rockville.

The company has not yet determined where in the corridor they will develop, according to a state press release.

Tasly representatives could not be reached Wednesday.

If Tasly chooses to contract with a land owner that has approved development space, it can begin to build as soon as it has county planning board, according to Steve Findley, a Montgomery County planner.

The corridor has 3.7 million square feet of approved development space; about 1.6 million of those are owned by Johns Hopkins University.

If Tasly chooses a land owner that does not have approved development space, the building would be subject to the corridor’s staging requirements, Findley said. The first stage, set to begin this summer, allows for only 400,000 additional square feet of commercial development, and three companies are already in line for that space.

The second stage allows for an additional 2.3 million square feet, but it cannot begin until the state or county completely funds the Corridor Cities Transitway, a 14-mile mass-rapid transit system that will connect Gaithersburg to Clarksburg.

The CCT is still in the planning phase, and the state has not yet designated any funding.

Global collaboration

Although other land owners have development approval, building on Johns Hopkins’ land would give Tasly opportunities to collaborate with the university’s researchers, said David McDonough of Johns Hopkins.

Tasly hopes to conduct clinical trials of its traditional Chinese product Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, developed to treat and prevent coronary disease.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett wrote in a June 2 statement that by locating in Science City, “Tasly will be well-positioned to establish research and development collaborations with renowned research institution Johns Hopkins University, and the many other premiere biotech companies and health partners located there.”

Hopkins owns both the Belward and Montgomery County campuses in the corridor, and Tasly has toured both. The Belward campus, north of Darnestown Road and Key West Avenue, would allow the most space for development, with 1.4 million square feet of commercial space already approved.

This collaboration fits the vision of the Science City master plan, which is to advance world health by bringing together the best scientists in the world, McDonough said.

Tasly looked at Boston, San Francisco and all across the U.S. for a site before settling on Science City, he said.

This will be the largest investment of a Chinese company in Maryland, according to a state press release.

“We think there is an incredible opportunity [in Maryland] for Tasly to innovate new products and introduce them to the US market,” Yan Xijun, a Tasly chairman, stated in the release.

jbondeson@gazette.net

Correction: Tasly could eventually bring about 50 new jobs to the corridor.