During his eighth and final state of the state address last month, Gov. Lincoln Almond made sure to highlight one of the hallmarks of economic development under his watch: the state’s blossoming biotechnology sector.
He pointed to Immunex Corp. and Dow Chemical Co., the two drug behemoths that each announced major expansion plans last year. The two companies combined are spending more than $1 billion in Rhode Island and plan to add hundreds of jobs over the next several years.
"That’s proof positive that Rhode Island is well on the way to being known as a major biotech center," Governor Almond said.
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The companies’ high profiles are a major shot in the arm for the state’s reputation as a biotech center, according to Joseph Hammang, Gov. Almond’s science adviser and director of science and technology for the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council.
"We do have a tremendous leg up with Dow and Immunex, and the cluster of small R&D companies we have here," Hammang said.
He added that the proposed acquisition of Immunex by biotech giant Amgen Inc., announced in December, would add to the state’s stature. "Now all of a sudden we have the largest and most successful biotech company in the world with a billion dollar investment in the state," he said. "That’s a big deal."
There is, however, more to the state’s biotech industry than biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Biotechnology is a blanket term that includes a variety of manufacturing sectors.
"Biotechnology encompasses much more than just drug manufacturing," said Jean Burritt Robertson, research and development director for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. "There are quite a few biotechnology firms in Rhode Island doing some very interesting things."
The state counts 100 firms in the biotech-manufacturing sector, accounting for 3,439 jobs. The average company employs about 75 people, Burritt Robertson said.
Included in the EDC’s count are the small, research-intensive biotechs that typically spawn from work done in biomedical labs at the state’s colleges and universities. These firms often consist of just a few scientific researchers squirreled away in a lab, working toward discovery of a new drug or medical device.
But the list also includes a cross-section of diverse manufacturers that make everything from pulmonary testing equipment to hearing-aid parts.
The number of biotech jobs in the state has fluctuated throughout the years, Burritt Robertson said, with the influx of new companies offsetting departures from firms such as CytoTherapeutics Inc. (now Stem Cells Inc.) and Alpha Beta Technology.
But Burritt Robertson said the current number of 3,400-plus appears to be a high-water mark, and it is likely to rise as Immunex and Dow expand.
"I think it’s definitely on the upswing now," Burritt Robertson said. "We’re not just keeping pace with the (job) losses anymore."
It is the drug-manufacturing sector that has seen the most explosive growth. About 750 people now work at pharmaceutical manufacturers in Rhode Island – up sharply from just 217 workers in 1995.
Moreover, the biopharmaceutical sector has "very high multipliers," Burritt Robertson said, meaning that the economic impact in the Rhode Island economy is far greater than the direct jobs themselves. She said every biopharmaceutical job added results in two additional indirect jobs in the state.
The drug-manufacturing sector’s headcount likely will crack 1,000 over the next few years, too, as Immunex and Dow facilities come online.
Dow plans to add "several hundred" employees in connection with a planned 45,000-square-foot expansion to its existing facility in Smithfield.
Immunex already employs 350 workers at its retrofitted plant in West Greenwich, which is expected to come online later this year once it gets the OK from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And the 250,000-square-foot, $500 million facility now under construction at the same location should bring Immunex’ total headcount to 700 upon its completion, expected in 2005.
While both the Dow and Immunex facilities use sophisticated machinery and manufacturing infrastructure, they serve different functions.
Dow’s Smithfield plant is the huge chemical company’s only contract manufacturing component. It uses a fermentation process to produce drugs for smaller drug-discovery companies that don’t have their own manufacturing capabilities, often firms that have discovered promising new medications and need to manufacture it for clinical trials.
Immunex, on the other hand, is bringing both massive plants online with the sole purpose of manufacturing one product: its blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. But once the new facility becomes operational in 2005, the retrofitted plant will shift its focus to commercial production of new products, according to Efi Cohen-Arazi, senior vice president of supply operations at Immunex.
The 20,000-liter bioreactors that will be installed in the new building will be the largest bioreactors ever used in cell culture manufacturing, Cohen-Arazi said.
