ALBANY MOLECULAR COMBINES MIDWEST LABS.(BUSINESS)

Byline: -- Staff report

ALBANY -- Albany Molecular Research Inc. is consolidating operations in the Midwest by relocating its Biocatalysis Division from Iowa City to a lab it purchased in September near Chicago.

The drug-discovery firm has 29 employees in that division, currently located in the University of Iowa's Oakdale Research Park.

During the first half of 2002, Albany Molecular will move those operations -- and any employees interested in relocating -- to the 88,000-square-foot laboratory in Mount Prospect, Ill., about 20 miles from downtown Chicago.

Currently, 49 people work in …