Biotech firm gets welcome

Ohio incentives attracted maker of new diabetes drug

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Full operation at Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s new $400 million drug manufacturing and distribution center here is still more than a year away. But it's already having an impact on the local and state economy.

Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher led state, local and Amylin officials Monday in dedicating the still-under-construction 460,000-square-foot complex in two buildings off Port Union Road. They said they mention Amylin's investment frequently as they pitch the importance of Ohio's bioscience industry.

"Bioscience brings highways, jobs, investment in research and medical breakthroughs that benefit the people of Ohio and people around the world," said Strickland, who noted that Ohio ranks in the top 10 states in the nation in biotech growth because of its lower operating costs.

Fisher, who heads the Ohio Department of Development, said: "We use the words Amylin more than any other company in the state. It's a symbol of what can be done."

San Diego-based Amylin received nearly $46 million in state incentives this year for its first manufacturing facility producing a new drug, a once-a-week injection, to treat Type 2 diabetes.

The company now employs 145 here as it develops its manufacturing systems at the complex.

It expects that number to increase to 161 by year-end and grow by another 130 next year as it gears up to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for the drugin early 2009, officials said.

Approval is expected to take 10 months after the application is submitted.

Last week, Amylin reported the results of a 30-week clinical trial of the drug which showed improved glucose control and weight loss comparable to its Byetta, a twice-a-day treatment approved in 2005.

Amylin CEO Daniel Bradbury on Monday said the long-acting drug, which uses a slow-release technology developed by Alkermes Inc. - which has a plant in nearby Wilmington - "has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of diabetes. This facility will manufacture medicines that will change the lives of millions affected by the disease around the world."

Fisher, who began pursuing the Amylin project shortly after he and Strickland were elected last November, said the project "was no slam dunk. This was a real competition" involving several states and the South and Southwest.

The key, he said, was a private-public partnership of state, county and township governments and private agencies.

One example of the collaboration: Amylin, the state of Ohio and the University of Cincinnati are in talks to create a pharmaceutical engineering program along the lines of the Winkle College of Pharmacy's 3-year-old master's program in drug development at UC.

Fisher said the state's work ethic was a key differentiator.

"It's something no other region can compete with," he said.

George Lang, township trustee president, called Amylin "a great deal for West Chester."

Noting that Amylin is the largest manufacturing investment in the township's history, Lang pointed to economic development studies showing that bioscience investments generate nearly six spin-off jobs for each job created.

Leaving the Amylin dedication, Strickland and Fisher met with several dozen striking employees at OPW's Fueling Components plant, at 9393 Princeton-Glendale Road, who demonstrated to call attention to their eight-week contract impasse. Negotiators for the company and Local 45B of the Glass, Molders and Pottery Workers union are to hold contract talks again today. .

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The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran

At Monday's ceremony: Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (from left); Amylin CEO and President Dan Bradbury; Gov. Ted Strickland; Butler County Commissioner Charles Furmon; and West Chester Township Trustee George Lang. The plant is under construction.