By ADAM DAIGLE | Acadiana Business Editor Good morning, Acadiana. Let's get down to business real quick. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s critical participation in development of a COVID-19 vaccine in 2020-2021 was a point of pride for campus leadership and researchers at the New Iberia Research Center. More might have been done, though – and more quickly – given the right facilities. That’s why formal announcement of plans to fund and expand improved NIRC lab facilities and construct the Iberia BioInnovation Accelerator in Iberia Parish drew a packed meeting room Tuesday night. State and local officials celebrated an investment of some $47 million to build a Level 3 biosafety lab and develop facilities to take a drug through research, testing and manufacturing. A BioInnovation Accelerator in nearby Progress Point Business Park is also planned, and Those developments would create as many as 550 new jobs with $10.6 million in annual tax revenues for Iberia Parish. You can read the story here. Have a great day and see you back here Thursday morning. | 