Power From The People

James P. Miller

"That allowed us to increase the supply of the product in Europe and around the world," says James P. Miller, managing director of the St. Louis site. "The facility in Stockholm, which is operated by BioVitro, was already approved to make the product in the EU and the US. Getting the approval allowed us to serve the Euro market out of St. Louis, and we were able to divert a good amount of the product from Stockholm to the U.S., increasing the overall supply. In the first week of December [2002], we just received U.S. approval. So this was a huge milestone for the site.
        Oddly enough, Wyeth will manufacture bulk drug for ReFacto in St Louis, and final processing for distribution to the United States will continue at the Stockholm facility.
        Miller says the project is on schedule, thanks in part to the construction management work of Bovis Lend Lease, the engineering expertise of Fluor Daniel and a particularly good climate for specialty subcontractor work. A longtime St. Louis resident, with more than 18 years of management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, Miller has seen the location grow from six employees (when it was Chiron Corp.) to the current 450.
        "We've added 12 to 15 people per month since the start of 1998," he says. "Roughly 80 to 90 percent come from the St. Louis region [Missouri and Illinois]."
        The project began and ended with the availability of the facilities and the work force Wyeth had to build from in St. Louis already. Throw in a community steeped in the life sciences (Monsanto, Mallinkrodt) and some extra educational fortification, and the choice became elementary.

Match Maker In early January, the Missouri Dept. of Economic Development joined forces with the Dept. of Labor and Industrial Relations to get the latest job opening information in the hands of laid off workers when they first file for unemployment.         Called the Auto-Match System, the program improves the speed of that information by a month -- claimants formerly didn't receive the information until they reported to a Missouri Career Center some four weeks after filing.         "This innovative program breaks down barriers and will provide good results for both workers and businesses of Missouri," says Joseph L. Driskill, director of the Missouri Dept. of Economic Development.         Auto-Match also provides a central location for employers to call and obtain assistance in submitting job orders, by calling toll-free at 1-866-506-0251.

        "We started working with the RCGA (Regional Community Growth Association) and the St. Louis Development Council, and we got some education tax credits and began working with the community college district on curricula," says Miller. "Over the last four years, we have helped to develop a biotechnology program at St. Louis Community College, which many of our people are enrolled in. We're working with the high schools to generate increased interest in sciences. The University of Missouri-St. Louis also has a biotech program, as does Washington University -- we get several of our higher level engineers from those places."
        Giving added impetus to this criteria, Miller says that while some pharma firms may be intentionally siting in more out-of-the-way places (BD Medical Systems in Nebraska, Abbott Laboratories in McPherson, Kan.), Wyeth is focused on centering facilities where there is a pool of talent, with tax advantages being another primary criterion.
        Another area firm in a related field is reaping the benefits of a $3-million industrial revenue bond generated by the Economic Development Center of St. Charles County. Medical device maker Synergetics will now use the funds to help build a new 34,000-sq.-ft. (3,159-sq.-m.) plant in O'Fallon that will grow from 85 to 130 employees within the next two years. The design will be such that expansion to as much as 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574 sq. m.) will be easily accomplished.
        Similar bonds were issued in St. Charles in 2002 to aircraft part maker Patriot Machine ($3.5 million toward a 70,000-sq.-ft. [6,500-sq.-m.] facility that plans to grow from 50 to 140 workers) and GFI-USA ($3 million toward a new 30,000-sq.-ft. [2,800-sq.-m.] plant that will accommodate up to 40 more employees).
        Adding to the St. Louis area's pull is a $2.6-billion expansion at Lambert International Airport, which will create not only a third runway, but also a $300-billion economic impact on the region. That's just one of several positive developments on the infrastructure front.
        The one thing that St. Louis needs more of is lab space, says Wyeth's Miller. So the push is on by a consortium of private and public concerns, including Wyeth, to back incubator space for small biotech firms working with breakthrough technologies. Some of those are long shot prospects, but St. Louis has been active in the life sciences long enough to know the payoff.