Irvine-based Allergan Inc. is the runaway leader on the Business Journal’s annual list of drugmakers based in Orange County or with sizable local operations.
The 10 largest drugmakers posted 1% job growth compared to a year ago, with 3,718 local workers.
Drugmakers on the list are ranked by local employment. Five companies reported gains, one reported job cuts, and one was flat. The remaining numbers are Business Journal estimates.
The list previously had 12 companies, but two fell off. New York-based Pfizer Inc. closed its Irvine sales office, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. missed the list’s cutoff for employees. Spokesperson Frederick Egenolf told the Business Journal in an email that the company has only a small regional sales office in Aliso Viejo with fewer than five employees.
Allergan, the maker of Botox and other drugs, reported having 2,400 employees in Orange County, unchanged from a year ago.
It’s engulfed in what’s probably the biggest business story so far this year in OC: its effort to beat back a hostile takeover attempt—valued at about $51.1 billion as of late last week—by Canada-based drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and activist investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP.
Valeant, with Orange County roots via ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was based in Costa Mesa, rounded out this year’s list, with an estimated 15 workers in Irvine.
The Allergan-Valeant saga started in April when the Canadian company made its first offer.
It later upped the offer, but Allergan has rejected all three, saying they undervalue the company.
Valeant and Ackman did succeed in their quest to call a special meeting of Allergan’s shareholders to consider their hostile bid. Allergan has set that meeting for Dec. 18.
Ackman and Valeant want Allergan shareholders to remove a majority of the company’s directors at the special meeting and replace them with ones more amenable to a takeover.
Allergan said in July that it would cut about 1,500 jobs this year as part of a restructuring plan to save about $475 million next year.
• Allergan dominates the drug scene in OC, with more than five times the local workforce of the list’s second-ranked drugmaker, Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.
The Business Journal estimates Teva has 388 workers at its Irvine plant, which is part of the company’s suburban Philadelphia-based U.S. generic drug unit.
Teva said last October that it would eliminate 10% of its global workforce, or about 5,000 jobs. It hasn’t specified, however, where the job cuts would come from.
The company cut more than 200 Irvine jobs in the 2011 to 2013 timeframe. The earliest cuts came after a year-long halt to production after the plant stopped making propofol, a sedative that gained notoriety after Michael Jackson’s death. It now makes various generic drugs.
• Seattle-based Dendreon Corp. came in at No. 3 on the list with an estimated 250 jobs at its Seal Beach plant. Dendreon makes Provenge, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
The biotechnology company warned investors last month that it might not be able to repay or refinance about $620 million worth of long-term debt that comes due in 2016.
The company said in a regulatory filing that it was considering alternatives to repaying the note, including ones that might leave its current stockholders with little or no financial ownership of the company.
• No. 4, Par Pharmaceuticals Inc., has an estimated 200 workers in Irvine. The Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based company bought Anchen Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2011 for $410 million, bringing it generic versions of drugs like the popular antidepressant Wellbutrin XL.
• Tustin-based Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. is the list’s No. 5 drugmaker. Its job count grew 3% to 181 local workers. The company develops drugs for cancer, including bavituximab.
• No. 6, Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Aliso Viejo, said it added 16 workers for a total of 90 as of August, a 22% hike.
It makes Nuedexta, a drug that’s used to treat pseudobulbar affect, a neurological disorder. It also has an agreement with Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. to co-promote a trio of Merck’s type 2 diabetes drugs in long-term care settings.
• Henderson, Nev.-based Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. came in at No. 7 on the list, with an 18% job hike to 87 workers at an Irvine office. It primarily does research and development here, although it was previously headquartered in Irvine.
• Stason Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Irvine came in at the No. 8 position with 80 workers. The company said its number was up 14% from a year ago.
• Mallinckrodt PLC, which is based in Dublin, Ireland, and operates from suburban St. Louis, makes its debut on the list at No. 9 with 27 local workers, up 23% from a year ago. It finished off its $5.8 billion buy of Anaheim-based Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. last month.
