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In a potential sign of a better economy, companies have announced expansions recently and plan to hire more workers.

Emergent BioSolutions, a Rockville biotechnology company that manufactures the anthrax vaccine BioThrax, is opening a manufacturing facility in East Baltimore, with plans to create up to 125 jobs over the next five years. Emergent purchased a 55,000-square-foot building from MdBio Foundation, an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland that supports bioscience education and workforce development, and the land on which the facility sits from the city of Baltimore for a total purchase price of $8.2 million.

JDS Uniphase Corp., a Milpitas, Calif., communications equipment maker, is beefing up its Germantown operations with 25 to 30 more people.

The company has more than 450 employees in Maryland and is hiring in areas such as engineering, operations, sales and services, said Bernie Tylor, a JDS Uniphase spokesman.

The Emergent facility in Baltimore will provide flexibility to do large-scale manufacturing of company products, Fuad El-Hibri, board chairman and CEO of Emergent, said in a statement. "Emergent is excited about this new facility in Baltimore because it houses several suites capable of manufacturing multiple products at the same time," he said.

The city of Baltimore offered Emergent a $250,000 purchase-price credit as a job-creation incentive. The state Department of Business and Economic Development offered Emergent a $50,000 grant to assist with the costs of assessment studies for the Baltimore site. The company is eligible for job creation tax credits and other benefits.

"Emergent's decision to expand in Maryland underscores not only our rich research and development environment, but also our mission to support the complete product development life cycle that includes bio manufacturing," DBED Secretary Christian S. Johansson said.

Emergent employs more than 600 employees worldwide with some 150 in Rockville and Gaithersburg. The company is selling two 145,000-square-foot unimproved buildings in Frederick acquired in 2004 and 2006.

While best known for manufacturing BioThrax, the first and only vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of anthrax disease, the company also develops vaccines and treatments for botulism, tuberculosis, typhoid, hepatitis B and Chlamydia, among other diseases.

In the first nine months this year, Emergent's net income increased by 40 percent to $26.9 million.

The Emergent facility, the old BioProcessing Center, was completed in 1996 on land leased from the City of Baltimore near the Johns Hopkins University Bayview Research Campus. Shortly after completing construction, the foundation negotiated a long-term lease with Bio Science Contract Production Corp. of New York, a contract biomanufacturing company.

In 2000, BSCP was sold to life sciences firm Cambrex Corp. of East Rutherford, N.J., which assumed the lease on the facility. In 2007, Cambrex was sold to biotechnology firm Lonza Group Ltd. of Basel, Switzerland.

"The acquisition of the Baltimore facility reflects our commitment to both continually creating jobs and investing additional capital in the State of Maryland, where Emergent headquarters and one of its product development sites are located," said Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, Emergent president and COO, in a statement.

"We extend our sincere appreciation to the state and local governments for their ongoing support of our efforts to develop our local manufacturing capabilities and look forward to growing Emergent's presence in the state."

"Though no longer owner of the center, MdBio will continue its important mission to promote and support the bioscience community throughout the state," said J.J. Finkelstein, chair of MdBio Foundation and president and CEO of RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, in the statement. "The Foundation's scholarship and educational programs, as well as its business advisory services, have been exceptionally well received by the bioscience community. We look forward to continuing these innovative programs and help make Maryland one of the premiere bioscience communities in the world."

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said, "The City of Baltimore is excited about welcoming Emergent BioSolutions to the Baltimore biotech community. With great research institutions such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland as potential partners in the area, we know that Emergent will be a wonderful contributor in the future."