NEWARK — QPS Holdings, one of the first major Delaware bioscience companies that opened in the Delaware Technology Park, will launch a $16.6 million expansion project.
The building is under construction by South Duvall of Maryland and was announced by the University of Delaware in 2023. The three-story lab is on the DTP Campus off Wyoming Road, and has been considered a treasured project by DTP CEO Michael Bowman.
“We at the Delaware Technology Park are thrilled that QPS has chosen to expand operations into a third building under development by Sheer Partners and South Duvall,” Bowman told the Delaware Business Times in an email. “QPS has become the dominant tenant at the park. QPS is representative of the vibrant success of biotechnology companies in Delaware.”
QPS Holdings, a contract research firm that was founded by two DuPont scientists in 1996, currently occupies all of 3 Innovation Way as well as 90% of 1 Innovation Way. With the expansion at the future lab, QPS will also grow its workforce by 135 employees— or by 40% of its Delaware workforce— to meet apparent client demand.
The expansion project is expected to be complete by 2027, and the company expects to move in the new lab in phases.
QPS Holdings Chief Administrative Officer Ben Hsu said the expansion was “strategically important” to the company. In its application to Delaware officials, QPS projected 20% net revenue growth in the next three years.
Since the company launched 30 years ago with three employees and a loan from friends and family, it became a multi-billion dollar business in its first years. In 2016, it was reported that QPS Holdings had $125 million in revenue by 2016 and typically saw growth in almost every year, except the Great Recession.
QPS Holdings has employed hundreds at its sites in Florida, Missouri, Austria, the Netherlands, China, India, Taiwan as well as Australia. Today, the company researches critical and metabolic characterizations for drug candidates for pharmaceutical companies, as well as including arranging clinical trials.
The next Delaware Technology Lab had been first discussed in 2023, as Bowman previously said the organization was working with the Delaware Prosperity Partnership to help identify whether there was appetite for another lab in northern Delaware.
To support QPS Holdings’ expansion, the Council on Development Finance awarded the company close to $1.2 million in state taxpayer-backed grants. About $1.1 million is in a Graduated Lab Space Grant and a job performance grant of $162,000 for the expected 133 employees QPS Holdings expects to hire over the next two years.
The grants out of the Strategic Fund work as reimbursements, as the state requires the company to show receipts of the work done and people hired before paying out the funds.
