A long-coveted slice of the biotechnology industry is taking root in Orange County—thanks to outsiders.
A trio of companies from elsewhere has set up or is starting operations in the county that stand to employ at least 400 people using biotechnology to treat or screen for cancer.
Seattle-based Dendreon Corp., Abraxis BioScience Inc. of Los Angeles and Agendia BV of the Netherlands have set up shop here or have big plans to.
The companies are bringing something that has largely eluded the county—biotech drugs and tests based on genes.
Most of the biotech industry is in the Bay Area, San Diego and the Northeast, while OC has developed as a hub for makers of surgical devices plus a few traditional drug makers.
The biotech companies expanding here point to the local healthcare workforce as a draw.
“One of the reasons we looked at Orange County was because, from a technical standpoint, with technicians and technologists, there’s such abundance here,” said Dan Forche, Agendia’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.
Agendia, a provider of genomic breast cancer tests, opened its U.S. headquarters and a test laboratory in Huntington Beach in May.
More to Come?
The operations of Dendreon, Abraxis and Agendia could lead to more biotech companies coming to OC, said Joseph Panetta, chief executive of Biocom, a San Diego-based industry group that has an Irvine office.
“There’s an emerging biotech cluster in Orange County,” Panetta said. “It is below the radar screen. I think most people are not aware of the fact that these exist.”
Agendia is looking to draw from a workforce here fueled by several existing medical laboratories as well as the University of California, Irvine, according to Forche.
Testing companies here include Quest Diagnostics Inc.’s Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano, Irvine’s US Labs Inc. and Clarient Inc., an Aliso Viejo cancer testing company.
Agendia’s main product is MammaPrint, a diagnostic test that assesses 70 genes and is designed to predict the reoccurrence of breast cancer in women who’ve been treated for the disease.
Forche referred to the company’s work as being “right square in the middle of the personalized medicine space in genomics.”
Genomics is the study of organisms’ genetic makeups.
Access to workers also drew Dendreon.
The drug developer plans to open a plant in Seal Beach that’s set to produce Provenge, its prostate cancer drug.
Dendreon is setting up shop in the Pacific Gateway Business Center business park off the Garden Grove (22) Freeway in the second half of 2011.
“The Southern California region is home to many first-rate academic institutions and a rich talent pool with experience in the healthcare industry,” said Katherine Stueland, a Dendreon spokeswoman.
Dendreon also picked Seal Beach because of its nearness to Los Angeles International Airport, she said.
For Agendia, Forche said other factors in starting a local operation had to do with Medicare—the federal health insurance program for the elderly—paying higher testing reimbursements in Southern California.
The state also has the highest rate of cancer cases in the U.S.
In some areas, biotech companies have received tax breaks or other incentives from local and state governments to set up shop for the high-quality jobs they bring.
Dendreon’s Stueland declined to say whether the company received any incentives to start a Seal Beach plant.
The company received incentives from the state of Georgia that could reach up to $9.6 million to locate a $70 million plant to make Provenge outside Atlanta.
Dendreon’s pledged to hire 550 people in Georgia, an economic development official with the state told BioRegion News, a trade publication.
Stueland said “several hundred jobs” could be created in Seal Beach. Dendreon has said the company’s current 290 employees could more than double by the time Provenge launches.
Abraxis
Abraxis, which makes breast cancer drug Abraxane, is set to have up to 200 workers in a Costa Mesa building that formerly housed ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., now Valeant Pharmaceuticals International in Aliso Viejo.
Of the three companies, Abraxis is the most tight-lipped about its plans. The company hasn’t provided much detail about what could be coming to Costa Mesa and didn’t respond to an interview request.
The company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that its Abraxis BioScience LLC unit spent $30 million in April to buy Valeant’s former headquarters, which is on Hyland Avenue and faces the San Diego (I-405) Freeway.
Abraxis has said it will spin off parts of its drug discovery, manufacturing and development businesses into a new unit called Abraxis Health Inc., which is expected to be based in Los Angeles with operations in Costa Mesa.
Agendia has 32 workers in its 3,500-square-foot U.S. headquarters and laboratory, which is in a medical office building near Huntington Beach Hospital, Forche said.
The company’s location is an “adequate distance” from John Wayne and Long Beach airports, Forche said. Agendia, as it grows, either will look to expand in its current location or find a new one, he said.
The company last month raised $23 million in a fifth round of funding from an undisclosed family investment firm, two undisclosed entrepreneurs and its existing investors: ING Groep NV and Dutch venture capital firms.
The funding was driven by increased U.S. use of its MammaPrint test, said Bernhard Sixt, its U.S. chief executive. The company’s main clients are oncologists and cancer surgeons.
