Boca Raton, Florida
Photos courtesy of City of Boca Raton
Trump tariffs play a role, but so does over-arching corporate strategy.
As the global pharmaceutical industry braces for new U.S. tariffs on imported drugs, at least one New Jersey-based company is doubling down on its investment in South Florida.
ADMA Biologics Inc., headquartered in Ramsey in Bergen County, New Jersey, near Mahwah, announced on August 22 that it will proceed with a $14.5 million expansion and create 51 new high-wage jobs in Boca Raton in south Palm Beach County about an hour north of Miami.
ADMA, which makes immune globulin products for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in immune-compromised patients, recently acquired an office building in Boca Raton for the purpose of expanding its Florida biologics campus.
Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, says that “the City of Boca Raton awarded ADMA Biologics a $153,000 Job Growth Incentive Grant in support of their most recent expansion.”
ADMA paid $12.35 million in June to acquire a 38,195-sq.-ft. office building on 5 acres at 6300 Park of Commerce Boulevard, where the firm already owns two other buildings. Adam Grossman, president and CEO of ADMA, said in a second-quarter earnings call on August 6 that the expansion is part of an aggressive corporate strategy to support a 30% increase in its U.S. manufacturing footprint.
“The site is expected to provide the company with additional operating flexibility to build on its growth trajectory by adding critical infrastructure, including cold storage capabilities, warehousing and inventory management, in-house testing, as well as added manufacturing capacity and potential new distribution opportunities,” the company stated in its quarterly earnings release.
Earlier in the year, Grossman signaled that ADMA would build on its “strategic advantage through fully U.S.-based manufacturing operations.” He said the firm would achieve that through a “vertically integrated U.S.-based supply chain.”
‘Tariffs Have No Impact on ADMA’
In an April 7 statement to investors, Grossman said, “ADMA is a U.S.-based company with all manufacturing operations, end-market sales and customer engagements conducted exclusively within the United States. The tariffs that have been implemented on foreign goods, services and manufacturing should have no impact on ADMA and its supply chain or production operations. The company’s vertically integrated supply chain is fully domiciled in the U.S., providing end-to-end domestic control over sourcing, manufacturing and distribution. Our strategic infrastructure not only ensures enhanced supply chain robustness, resilience and regulatory compliance, but also aligns with increasing federal and private-sector preferences for U.S.-made products and services. By maintaining complete operational control within the U.S., ADMA is uniquely well-positioned to capitalize on national economic incentives and deliver reliable, secure and high-quality offerings to its domestic customer base.”
Other companies are following suit. While the Trump administration’s announced 100% tariff on imported pharmaceuticals remains on hold pending negotiations with large drug manufacturers, several U.S.-based firms are charging ahead with plans to build new factories in America.
On Oct. 20, Merck began construction of a $3 billion, 400,000-sq.-ft. pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in Elkton, Virginia. On Sept. 23, Eli Lilly announced plans to construct a $6.5 billion facility to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients in Houston — just one week after announcing it will build a $5 billion campus in Goochland County, Virginia, to expand its drug-making capacity.
“The tariffs that have been implemented on foreign goods, services and manufacturing should have no impact on ADMA and its supply chain or production operations.”
– Adam Grossman, President & CEO, ADMA Biologics Inc.
ADMA may be small potatoes compared to those multinational juggernauts, but so far, pursuing a fully U.S.-centric strategy is paying big dividends for this rapidly growing firm. As of October 16, ADMA had a market capitalization valued at over $3.56 billion and had achieved a 5-year return of 557% for its investors on annual revenues of $447 million and a 44% profit margin. During the second-quarter earnings call, the company said its annual revenues should surpass $1.1 billion before 2030.
Building out its research and manufacturing campus in Boca Raton is a major part of that growth plan. With Florida ranking second nationally in both pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing by number of establishments, Florida Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly said it makes sense for ADMA to double down on its Florida investments.
Smallridge says that this latest project is a continuation of a life-sciences surge in South Florida.
“Palm Beach County began building momentum in the life sciences industry in 2004 with the arrival of The Scripps Research Institute, followed by Max Planck from Germany in 2008,” she notes. “Together, these two world-renowned institutes occupy more than 500,000 square feet and are co-located with Florida Atlantic University, creating strong synergies for research and innovation in the region. ADMA further strengthened Boca Raton’s life sciences presence when it purchased the former Biotest facility in 2017. Since then, the company has made significant investments to modernize the site and bring it up to current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) standards.”
‘What We Offer is Big for a Small City’
Jessica Del Vecchio, economic development manager for Boca Raton, a 100-year-old city of 102,000 people in the heart of booming South Florida, says that “Project Star represents a major win for the City of Boca Raton’s economic landscape, reaffirming its position as a hub for biotechnology innovation and high-wage employment. ADMA considered multiple states, including Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, for its expansion before selecting Boca Raton.”
ADMA Biologics At a Glance:
Market Cap: $3.562 Billion
5-Year Return: 557%
Profit Margin: 44%
Annual Revenues: $447 Million
Source: Yahoo Finance
The incentives are conditional on ADMA creating at least 51 new full-time jobs paying an average annual wage of $100,910 over a four-year period. Each position will be a high-skill role in biomanufacturing, scientific research or product development.
Del Vecchio says the ADMA win builds on the success of Boca Raton adding other major life sciences employers such as Sensus Healthcare, Therapeutics MD and Modernizing Medicine in the region.
This building in Boca Raton is part of an office landscape of 12 million sq. ft. in the city.
“We pay incentives on higher-paying jobs, and that has helped us land a number of key project wins,” says Del Vecchio. “Innovative Solutions is adding 30 new jobs in 30,000 square feet of new office space in the city. The Farmer’s Dog is a billion-dollar company out of New York that is hiring 150 people here; and ADMA is a major publicly traded company making a huge investment. We’re not Manhattan, but we’ve been using our competitive advantage to prospect companies out of the New York-New Jersey area. We’ve sent 40 leads to the Mayor’s Office, and he is in New York City today meeting with a very big financial company chief executive.”
With 12 million sq. ft. of office space, access to Interstate 95 and the South Florida Tri-Rail system, more than 30,000 students at Florida Atlantic University and an incentives fund that has grown to $7 million, Boca Raton is primed and ready to compete for more industry expansion projects, says Del Vecchio. Plus, she adds, it doesn’t hurt to show CEOs that they can save $7 million a year on operating costs just by moving a headquarters of 300 people from New York to Boca.
“We may only have 29 square miles, but what we do offer is big for a small city.”
— Jessica Del Vecchio, Economic Development Manager, Boca Raton, Florida
“Our pipeline is great. We will target firms in Chicago and California too,” says Del Vecchio. “We invite CEOs to visit us, take them to see our corporate space, and then meet them for lunch at Mizner Park, one of the finest outdoor dining destinations in the country. We show them our beaches and golf courses. We may only have 29 square miles, but what we do offer is big for a small city.”
Mizner Park was one of the first outdoor dining destination centers in the U.S.
