OC’s Drug Makers Employ Nearly 4,000; Allergan No. 1
Orange County has been known for some time for its medical device sector, but the area is also home to a growing cohort of pharmaceutical companies infused with a research and development ethos.
The Business Journal’s initial list of drug makers with significant OC operations is ranked by local employment and includes 13 companies that employ 3,787 workers, up 19% from their total a year ago.
Nearly half the job growth occurred at No. 2 Sicor Inc., Irvine, a maker of generic drugs that added several new products in the past year. Most of the other gains came from increased R & D; efforts at several companies.
OC’s three largest drug companies here are No. 1 Allergan Inc., Irvine, Sicor and No. 3 ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., Costa Mesa. All three are publicly traded and together account for 2,961 jobs, or more than three-quarters of the list’s total.
Allergan, which develops, makes and markets ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, neurotoxins for movement disorders and dermatological products, is by far the largest drug maker in Orange County. Allergan employs 1,900 people within the county, up 6% from 1,800 a year ago.
“Any kind of job increase is focused on growth in R & D; and sales,” said Christine Cassiano, an Allergan spokeswoman. Boosting research and development, along with sales and marketing efforts, has been the top priority for Allergan Chief Executive David Pyott since he took over the company in 1998.
On the product front, Cassiano said, Allergan still is awaiting word from the Food and Drug Administration about approving its flagship Botox neurotoxin for treating brow furrow. Botox, which has approval for various movement disorders, also has become popular for off-label cosmetic use.
Allergan also in the spring launched Lumigan, a glaucoma treatment that analysts expect to be a solid hit for the company. Lumigan has proved in its clinical trials to be effective in lowering intraocular pressure with possibly fewer side effects than other drugs.
Sicor, meanwhile, ranked No. 2 on the list, with a 56% job gain to 600 local workers. Sicor develops, manufactures and markets generic finished dosage injectable drugs, active pharmaceuticals and generic biotech drugs, although the company expects to become more of a player in the latter field later in the decade.
“We’ve had a number of products approved by the FDA,” said Laurie Little, a Sicor spokeswoman, in explaining the job growth. Sicor’s job additions include manufacturing, packaging and research and development, according to Little.
Sicor’s activities this year have included prevailing in a patent case against Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., the New York-based pharmaceutical giant whose OC operations put it at No. 9 on the Business Journal list. In late March, a U.S. appeals court upheld a lower court finding that a Bristol-Myers patent covering cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug made in a generic form by Sicor, was invalid.
Sicor also has finished building a new plant in Mexico and launched an outside review of the site as the next step in its bid to enter the generic biotechnology drug market. Sicor’s new plant is designed to meet Food and Drug Administration specifications, but the company does not plan to seek U.S. approval until the middle of this decade, when several biotechnology drugs come off patent.
ICN Pharmaceuticals, No. 3 on the list, reported 461 Orange County workers, up from 387 a year ago. Some of that growth, according to spokesman Peter Murphy, can be attributed to increased research and development activity at ICN’s Hyland Avenue corporate offices.
ICN, which manufactures antiviral, dermatological, and oncological products, was founded more than 40 years ago by Milan Panic, a Yugoslavian immigrant who in the ’90s served as that country’s prime minister. ICN is gearing up to spin off Ribapharm, a biotechnology research unit and drug business viewed as a jewel by analysts, although Murphy was unable to give a date for the separation.
When it is spun off, Ribapharm will take with it ribavirin, a hepatitis C pharmaceutical that generated $155 million in royalties last year and a good portion of ICN’s revenue. But Ribapharm and the speed, or lack of same, of its spin-off, has been the subject of ugly rows between Panic and dissident shareholders,Panic lost a proxy battle during ICN’s annual meeting over the matter.
While homegrown companies are at the top of the list, Orange County has also attracted sales and marketing offices of several international pharmaceutical behemoths. One of them is Eli Lilly & Co., based in Indianapolis and originator of the Prozac antidepressant. Lilly’s local office, which is a Western area sales operation, is No. 4 on the list, with 330 workers.
New York-based Pfizer Inc., creator of the wildly popular Viagra impotence treatment, ranks No. 5 on the list, with 142 local employees. Pfizer has regional sales office in Irvine and workers at its consumer division, Warner Lambert Consumer Group, in Anaheim.
Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., a New York-based drug giant that makes Taxol, a cancer treatment, and Serzone, an antidepressant medication, ranked No. 9 on the list, with 40 employees in a regional sales office that was relocated to Aliso Viejo from Irvine.
The largest percentage employment growth came at NeoTherapeutics Inc., a small, publicly traded company that is based in Irvine. NeoTherapeutics, which is involved in a range of activities including developing central nervous systems drugs to genomics (see story, page 22), was ranked No. 6 on the list, with 100 employees, up from 43 a year ago.
No. 7 Celltech Manufacturing California Inc. follows NeoTherapeutics, with 55 local employees. Celltech Manufacturing produces active pharmaceutical ingredients and solid dosage forms; it is a unit of a company based in Slough, U.K.
Purdue Pharma LP, based in Stamford, Conn., ranked No. 8 on the list, with 50 local employees in an Irvine research and development office. Purdue Pharma’s best-known product is OxyContin, a controlled-release prescription medication for chronic pain.
Cortex Pharmaceuticals, an Irvine company, came in at No. 10 on the list, with 33 local employees. Cortex, which describes itself as a “developing stage neuroscience company,” is working on pharmacology for treating brain-related disorders. Cortex was followed by Stason Pharmaceuticals, a 30-employee company that is associated with Taiwan-based Standard Chemical and Pharmaceutical Co. Stain’s local office, according to the list, is involved with technology transfer, product development, pilot-sale production and managing technical information and resources.
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., which has 26 workers at its Tustin corporate office, is involved in developing and commercializing cancer therapeutic and cancer diagnostic products. The last company on the list is Tera Pharmaceuticals Inc., which employs 20 people at its Buena Park operations and manufactures sterile eyewashes and injectibles. n
