Big, Bigger, Biggest

Image courtesy of Eyewire ©2001, Graphic: Cathleen Heard The economy may be chasing the bear rather than the bull, but short-term economic downturns are not affecting pharmaceutical firms' expansion--at least, not yet. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that AstraZeneca PLC's profits were up,1 and those who know the industry see the human lifestyle as more of a factor in drug company growth than the economy. "Although you may see peaks and valleys in bioscience growth and development over the next few years, our overall mission to develop better products and to promote healthier lifestyles will continue to move us forward," remarks Debra Pasquale, president of CURE of Rocky Hill, Conn., a not-for-profit initiative to stimulate bioscience growth in Connecticut. Pharmaceutical firms make their commitments for the long term. "Our time frame is seven to 10 years; we have to look beyond the [current] economy," notes Peter Farina, vice president of research for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Ridgefield, Conn. "Our process is multiyear." So pharmaceutical company expansion--and the subsequent expansion of firms that serve them--is likely to continue, yielding more jobs for scientists and technicians. Pharmaceutical growth is being pushed by the growth of genomics and other new technologies. "Companies understand that with the results achieved through the Human Genome Project we have crossed a threshold and are entering a new arena of opportunity," states CURE's Pasquale. CURE counts among its members some of the world's major pharmaceutical firms: Pfizer Inc. of Groton, Conn., which, after its merger with Warner-Lambert last spring, is now one of the largest companies in the world; Bayer Corp. of West Haven, Conn., the U.S. subsidiary of Germany's Bayer Group; and Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim located in Ridgefield, Conn. All three of these companies are expanding or have just expanded their Connecticut R&D facilities, and Bayer is also increasing its pharmaceutical production capacity in Kansas City, Mo. AstraZeneca moved into a new facility in Waltham, Mass., last June, and already is expanding the building. "We are exploring new cutting-edge technologies--genomics, microchips, and then we have informatics," explains Hans G. Nilsson, vice president and site general manager in Waltham. The Waltham facility is one of the company's three emerging science centers; the others are in the United Kingdom and Sweden. But the "global head of informatics ... [is] here in Waltham," notes Nilsson. Courtesy Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Cindy Sledziona (left) and George Rogers (right) rely on LDT's Allegro Robotics Systems to automate drug discovery screening. Pfizer has built the world's largest pharmaceutical R&D facility in the world in Groton--a 585,000-sq.-ft. building that opened last June. It was designed to "accommodate leading-edge tools and techniques." The company is also building a 740,000-sq.-ft. office building for clinical development across the Thames River in New London. That building is expected to open this year, and will house as many as 1,300 clinicians, biostatisticians, and clinical and nursing researchers, according to the company. Boehringer Ingelheim's new Lead Discovery Technologies Building in Ridgefield, dedicated on January 23, is a model of cutting-edge robotics and automation, containing high-throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry, and the site's dispensatory functions. The company's other two screening sites are in Germany and Austria. The Ridgefield site houses two state of the art Allegro Robotic Systems, designed in conjunction with Zymark Corp. Each system can screen 100,000 compounds in 24 hours for drug discovery. The building also contains robotic liquid handling machines, automated archive and storage retrieval, and automated pipettors that, when fully operational, will allow the Allegro system to screen 100,000 compounds in 10 hours. According to Farina, while Boehringer Ingelheim produces its own biological reagents--enzymes, receptors, and proteins they need for scaling--"we depend very heavily on commercial suppliers of other biological reagents." He continues, "If you look back five or 10 years ago, we would buy reagents by the case. Today, we order reagents and disposables by the pallet." The Sigma-Aldrich Life Sciences Division, which specializes in selling reagents and components for molecular and cellular biology research, including pharmaceutical research, is well aware of these changes in the industry. The division is increasing the size of its main facility in St. Louis, and adding 30 to 40 scientists per year, with a goal of increasing its staff from 120 to 250 research scientists over the next three years, according to David Julien, president of the division. The Life Sciences Division is just one unit of the large biochemical reagent, fine chemicals, and diagnostics company. Besides its large facility in St. Louis, the Life Sciences Division has satellite research facilities in Houston, Boston, and Belfont, Pa. "Our goal is to stay on top of the research performed by the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies, along with the areas of disease, genomics, functional genomics, and protein research, so we can bring enabling tools at the earliest stage possible," asserts Julian. Courtesy Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Carol Homon (left), Peter Farina (center), and Greg Roth (right) review floor plans for Boehringer's Lead Discovery Technologies building. Why Here? There are numerous reasons for expansion at any particular locale. Boehringer Ingelheim already had an R&D facility in Ridgefield, and Pfizer had just about outgrown its R&D facility in Groton. AstraZeneca selected the Boston area after a worldwide search for a location. One reason they selected Boston was the labor market. "I don't think you can make progress in bioscience without the commitment and the availability of high-level scientific talent for basic research," notes CURE's Pasquale. Sigma's Julien concurs, "There are advantages to having multiple locations. The St. Louis area is quickly becoming a biotech center in the Midwest; however, when you look at some of our other locations in Boston and Houston, you have numerous universities, medical centers, established biotechnology companies and startup firms, making them good locations for hiring and retaining experienced talent." "We ... ended up in a good location for a commute, where people are living." states AstraZeneca's Nilsson, of the company's location just inside the Route 128 corridor around Boston. Although AstraZeneca recruits nationwide, the pool of talented and trained people in the Boston area along with the excellent schools and biotechnology community, is what Nilsson calls, "the basis of success in the future." Farina, too, feels that western Connecticut is a lure for potential talent, that they recruit worldwide: "Connecticut is an area that attracts people who have good technical training. There's [an] excellent living environment in the area, good proximity to major cities--New York, New Haven, Boston, Hartford--good transportation to major airports, good universities, good schools." And having research universities nearby and a budding biotech industry are major points. "There's a lot of research going on; we cross-pollinate," notes Sheila Burke, Boehringer Ingelheim's manager of communications and public relations. "It's nice to have the proximity to Yale University," she continues. CURE's Pasquale points out that Bayer recently formed an alliance with genomics company CuraGen Corp. of New Haven. "To find the best strategic partner, both companies would have been willing to search the world over. Instead, they found the right partner within 10 miles from each other!" she exclaims. Pasquale observes that the right business environment is essential for the companies to expand: "If you look at regions with a high degree of regulation, they are very stifling. There is no freethinking environment. That becomes an obstacle to bioscience growth and development." All of these companies are focusing on markets that are of special concern to the aging population and to a world in which rapid transportation allows rapid dissemination of infectious agents. Boehringer Ingelheim's Connecticut site is focusing on screening potential drugs for activity in immunology, inflammatory diseases, and virology. AstraZeneca's Waltham site is focusing on infectious diseases and cancer. Bayer's expanded West Haven site is focusing on drugs for cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, and obesity. And Sigma-Aldrich is actively seeking new products in cell signaling and neurosciences, markets that are hot now. Photo: Åke E:Son Lindman AstraZeneca's new facility in Waltham, Mass., one of the company's three emerging science centers A Changing Workplace While the growth of many pharmaceutical firms continues, job growth is not keeping pace. "It has not been a proportional increase in staff because of the automation," explains Boehringer Ingelheim's Farina. And the staff companies do hire may not be the standard bench scientists. "The workplace has changed and the training of people has changed, clearly in the direction of automation, robotics, data management, and informatics," says Farina, "Now we are very interested in people who have an automation background. We have a strong need for people who are involved in computer science and automation." He notes that his firm also needs people in cheminformatics, assay development, analytical scientists who carry out high-throughput analysis, and scientists who can manage a complex work facility. Farina himself has a background in biochemistry. People who have left the bench and people who have other skills can find niches. "You see a lot of the scientists--many times, after three, four, five years in the lab, in the development of products--move into technical service, marketing, purchasing, different types of business jobs," says Sigma's Julien, who, until 10 or 15 years ago, was "in the R&D production environment." With a change in personnel, there also is a change in the corporate culture, as reflected in the architecture of the new sites. AstraZeneca is on 64 acres and the company has created "a campuslike setting," comments Nilsson. Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim are proud of the architecture of their new buildings. Pfizer's is arranged in "therapeutic zones," where scientists from all disciplines who work on discovering drugs for specific diseases are grouped together. According to Boehringer Ingelheim, the buildings' wide-open workspaces, sunlit halls and offices, and break areas are designed to promote discussion and interaction among employees. Boehringer Ingelheim's Burke comments, "The culture is very inviting--a cross between an intellectual scientific community and the corporate field." "I don't see any short-term effect of the economy impacting our ability in carrying out our mandate in Ridgefield for our research and development effort," says Farina. "Clearly, the opportunity for drug development has never been greater," notes Burke. Myrna E. Watanabe is a freelance science writer in Patterson, N.Y. 1. "AstraZeneca profit rises 16% on sales of newer products," The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 9, 2001, page B-10.

Big, Bigger, Biggest

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