The pharmaceutical industry in the Greater Philadelphia region is in a league of its own, with a lineage that dates back to the early 19th century. GlaxoSmithKline can trace its Philadelphia roots to 1830, Wyeth to the 1860s, Johnson & Johnson to 1886, and Merck to 1891. Throughout its history, the pharma industry has served as a powerful driver of economic growth for the Greater Philadelphia region, and it continues to do so today.
In 2004, Harris InfoSource selected the Greater Philadelphia region's Top-20 life sciences companies, based on their number of employees, and a dozen of them were pharmaceutical companies. Many were Big Pharmas including Merck, Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, which comprised the top five in that order. Johnson & Johnson companies, including Centocor and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, took top-20 spots as well. Consequently Catherine Bonuccelli, vice president in development projects at AstraZeneca, says that "pharmas acted as anchor companies" in the region.
Big Pharma's presence encourages more life science companies to locate in the Greater Philadelphia region, and the area also serves the companies. "This region has a very rich talent pool of scientists and pharmaceutical experts," says Caroline Lappetito, director of public affairs at Merck Research Laboratories in North Wales, Pa. Indeed, long-time pharmaceutical companies and newer, growing companies find multiple reasons to remain in or locate to the region. As a result, these companies bring everything from basic research to manufacturing into the area.
The 2004 Top-20 list gave Merck top billing when it had 11,475 employees in the region. Lappetito now puts that number at 13,850, spread across several facilities, including Merck Research Laboratories in Upper Gwynedd Township and a major research site at West Point, both in Montgomery County, Pa. "Marketing, manufacturing, and administrative activities also take place in the Greater Philadelphia region," says Lappetito. As of August 1, 2007, Merck boasted a pumping pipeline, with 26 compounds in Phase I trials for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infectious diseases, and more. In addition, the company had 16 compounds in Phase II trials and five compounds in Phase III.
Wyeth also maintains facilities in Montgomery County, including its headquarters in Collegeville. As of April 25, 2007, the company's pipeline consisted of 10 compounds in Phase 0 (a short-term, small-sample size, and low-dose study before traditional clinical trials) and 20 compounds in Phase I, including new drugs for Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, asthma, bipolar disorder, and others, plus six vaccines. It also had 16 new drugs and two vaccines in Phase II and 10 compounds in Phase III, including those for osteoporosis and pneumonia, and two vaccines for pneumococcal diseases.
Other big pharmaceutical companies also make their homes in the Greater Philadelphia region. GlaxoSmithKline, for example, has its headquarters in Philadelphia and runs a research and development facility in Collegeville. The company targets treatments for a wide range of diseases including asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, digestive conditions, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. It also works on vaccines, dedicating 1,300 scientists to the development of new compounds. Last September, David Pernock, senior vice president for general pharma/vaccines, stated that GlaxoSmithKline's US vaccine sales grew by 40% in 2006.
The large pharmas in the area also reside in nearby states. AstraZeneca, for instance, runs its headquarters from Wilmington, Del. "We also have an R&D site and a manufacturing site in Delaware," says an AstraZeneca spokesperson. "Approximately 5,000 of our US employees work in the state." In 2006 AstraZeneca also opened its first US-based clinical pharmacology unit at the University of Pennsylvania Health System's Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. These facilities keep AstraZeneca's pipeline moving. The spokesperson says, "We now have 161 projects in development, with 10 in Phase III, compared with 120 projects and five Phase IIIs in February 2007." The company also focuses on being a good neighbor. The company spokesperson says, "AstraZeneca provides funding support to more than 140 local nonprofit organizations in Delaware and the Greater Philadelphia area."
Bristol-Myers Squibb is well-represented in the Greater Philadelphia region, too, with two of its six major R&D facilities located in Hopewell and Princeton, NJ. As of March 2007, internal discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb had produced 50 compounds in research programs, 22 compounds in preclinical or early clinical development, and four compounds that were either in late clinical stages, already submitted to regulatory agencies, or approved in one major market and pending approval in other major markets.
Baxter International, a global biotechnology, medical device, and pharmaceutical company, took the ninth spot on the Harris InfoSource list. "We truly believe the benefit of being in this region is the excellent employees we have been able to attract to the Cherry Hill, NJ, facility," says Tarsis Lopez, senior manager of corporate communications. "The business specializes in inhaled-anesthesia products, many of which are produced at Baxter's Cherry Hill facility." He adds, "While there are no specific plans, we would consider future endeavors in the Greater Philadelphia area."
At number 10 on the Harris InfoSource list is Centocor, a Johnson & Johnson company located in Horsham, Pa. The company makes biomedicines for Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases. More than one million patients with Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis have relied on Centocor's Remicade (infliximab).
Johnson & Johnson Research & Development took the 12th spot on the Harris InfoSource list. It operates facilities in Raritan, NJ, Spring House, Pa., and Titusville, NJ, as well as other locations in the United States and Europe.
Sanofi-Aventis also runs operations at multiple locations, including its Great Valley research facility in Malvern, Pa., just 25 miles west of Philadelphia. More than 700 employees work at this site, which has compounds in preclinical and clinical stages. Regulatory affairs are also conducted at the Malvern facility.
Founded only in 1987, Cephalon quickly made a mark on the pharmaceutical industry. Sheryl Williams, vice president of public affairs, says, "Cephalon corporate headquarters are located in Frazer, Pa., with our most significant R&D facility in West Chester, Pa." She adds, "Employees work at four additional sites in the vicinity of West Chester and Frazer." During the last five years, Cephalon added 650 full-time employees and 200 part-time or contract employees.
PharmaNet Development Group in Princeton also runs six facilities in the Greater Philadelphia region. "Over the past five years, PharmaNet Development Group has added hundreds of new positions to its locations in the Greater Philadelphia area," says Jackie Brenner, manager of human resources. "The company continues to grow rapidly and is recruiting many more."
As these brief overviews show, Big Pharma in the Greater Philadelphia region goes beyond creating strong anchors for the life science industry. These companies also form one of the strongest Big-Pharma regions in the world, and it continues to grow stronger.