Abraxis BioScience Inc. said on Thursday that it has bought a 3.5-acre property in Culver City for the site of a new research and development facility.

The biopharmaceutical campus, with a planned 2008 completion date, is intended to bring together all of the company’s proprietary research, development and clinical trial operations.

Abraxis, which was created by the merger of Santa Monica-based American BioScience Inc. and Schaumburg, Ill.-based American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc., has been operating out of American BioScience’s offices since the merger closed last month.

In addition to the Culver City property, Abraxis said it has acquired a 50,750-square-foot laboratory facility in Marina del Rey. The building, formerly owned by CancerVax Inc., will expand Abraxis’ research and process development capabilities as well as house the company’s regulatory affairs and medical writing staff. The cost of both properties was not disclosed.

Work at the Marina del Rey facility will include research to develop therapeutic agents using the company’s proprietary “nab” drug discovery platform. Abraxis is the maker of the well-regarded breast cancer treatment Abraxane.

In addition to the Los Angeles-area facilities, Abraxis retains American Pharmaceutical’s manufacturing facility in Illinois, which makes Abraxane and several injectible generic drugs.

Abraxis has 125 Los Angeles-area employees, and Chief Executive Patrick Soon-Shiong said last year that he expected to add 100 to 300 people over the next several years. The Illinois plant employs more than 1,200 people.

“We have grown tremendously over a relatively short period of time and this facility, along with our development of a biopharmaceutical campus in nearby Culver City, will provide us with the space necessary to meet our laboratory, R & D; and production requirements,” said Soon-Shiong, who founded the two original companies in the 1990s.