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Puerto Rico: A Caribbean Hub

With a strong supply of highly skilled labor, a significant incentive package, a favorable wage differential and sophisticated communications and transportation systems, Puerto Rico has attracted pharmaceutical companies for decades.

Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies in Puerto Rico include Abbott Laboratories, American Home Products, Baxter International, Becton-Dickenson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Procter & Gamble, Schering-Plough, Searle and Warner Lambert. Altogether about 22,700 employees work at approximately 80 facilities on the island.

Pharmacia & Upjohn Caribe, a leading pharmaceutical and healthcare company, recently announced plans to invest more than $162 million in a new Nicorette manufacturing facility in Arecibo that will create 140 new jobs by 2002. "This investment demonstrates the Island's ideal business climate by highlighting the competitiveness of Puerto Rico's labor force, its strategic position as a distribution and manufacturing center, and the competitive advantages it offers compared to other countries," says Xavier Romeu, executive director of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO).

DuPont Agricultural Caribe Industries, which specializes in the manufacture of crop protection products, recently completed a $25 million expansion in its ManatÌ operations. "Puerto Rico's technical talent is extraordinary and constitutes one of the key factors for our continuous success during our 20 years on the island," says Carlos Avella, president and general manager.