“This facility will be crucial to our ability to expand and continue to serve our clients,” said Bonita Baskin, CEO of AppTec.

The commonwealth of Pennsylvania will provide a $750,000 financial package, including a $250,000 Opportunity Grant and up to $500,000 through the Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund (MELF) to support the project.

The Opportunity Grant program provides flexible financing to preserve and expand existing industries and attract other prospects. The MELF program provides low-interest financing to acquire and install new or used machinery or equipment, or to upgrade existing machinery or equipment to companies unable to fully finance their projects.

In addition, AppTec will also be eligible for tax benefits because the site is located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ), which is designed to lure businesses to economically challenged areas. Qualified companies that locate in a KOZ benefit from paying little or no state and city business taxes for a decade.

In addition to Camden, AppTec Laboratory Services also has facilities in St. Paul, Minn., and Atlanta. The company, which employs more than 150 people, provides testing services in the field of virology/microbiology.

Biotechnology in the Philadelphia metro received another boost earlier this year when Pennsylvania officials OK’d a $7.9 million grant to Delaware Valley College to complete a new Biotechnology Research Center at its Doylestown campus.

The development of the center, through a partnership between Delaware Valley College and the Hepatitis B Foundation, will work to attract and retain high-tech companies, and increase student enrollment and educational opportunities. It is expected to create 110 direct jobs and an additional 300 indirect jobs.

Another biotech company, Adolor Corp., moved its headquarters to the Philadelphia suburb of Exton.

Adolor develops novel analgesics and other related therapeutics based upon recent advances in proprietary medicinal chemistry and recombinant receptor technology.

In Bucks County, Alstyle Apparel expanded its business by opening a new 42,000 square foot manufacturing plant. Alstyle is a manufacturer of T-shirts, which are distributed to department stores, specialty stores, boutiques, mass merchants, and printers and advertisers. While the company has manufacturing warehouses in California, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas, this is its first Northeast U.S. operation.

MAAX, the largest Canadian manufacturer of bathroom products, moved its Pennsylvania operations to Warminster. The company leased 55,000 square feet of a 320,000 square foot facility for use in its manufacturing operations.

HMPT, a Newark, Del.,-based manufacturer that specializes in high strength, industrial material, relocated to 20,000 square feet of space in Boothwyn, where the company plans to employ an additional 20 people.