Healthy Business Climate Stocks Nation’s Medicine Chest

Life sciences — the lifeblood of New Jersey’s reputation as a pharmaceutical giant — remains well and thriving in the Garden State, with a handful of new firms entering in the past few months and others striking lucrative deals.

But New Jersey faces a challenge from competing states and countries, several of which are aiming to recreate its life sciences climate in order to win over pharmaceutical companies, said John Pennett, a partner at the accounting firm Amper, Politziner & Mattia; he leads its life sciences practice.

New Jersey has to be watchful that other states and countries are trying to replicate its life sciences ecosystem, Pennett said. He listed California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin as among those with the biggest booths at the trade fairs he visits. Ireland and Puerto Rico also are trying to build communities around life sciences, he added.

Still, good news is in ready supply. New Jersey recently welcomed a high-profile biotechnology firm with blue-blooded venture capitalists and a deep-pocketed Danish pharmaceutical firm; a life sciences service provider announced a software deal with four Big Pharma companies; and a health care supplies startup said it’s raring to grow out of its incubator.

In September, Paul Thomas faced a toss-up between California and New Jersey in choosing a headquarters location for Roka Bioscience Inc. The president and chief executive ultimately hedged his bets, tapping Warren for his company’s headquarters and commercial operations while retaining research functions out West.

“We capitalize on the best of both worlds,” Thomas said.

Roka, a spinoff of San Diego-based Gen-Probe, is developing molecular tests for contaminants in the production processes at biopharmaceuticals and foods companies, expecting to launch them in the first half of 2011, he said.

Roka’s main attraction to New Jersey is an ecosystem that packs in “talent, proximity to the investment community [in New York] and regulatory agencies in Washington, D.C., customers, and suppliers,” Thomas said. He knows the state well from his work as chairman and CEO of tissue-repair products company LifeCell Corp., in Branchburg.

Thomas also said he found the state’s business environment encouraging. The state approved a grant for $583,000 over 10 years in exchange for Roka creating 20 new jobs, according to a spokesman of the state Economic Development Authority. Roka plans to grow its New Jersey staff from eight to 30, while adding 30 positions in San Diego, by year’s end.

The state’s support system for pharmaceutical companies also drew Danish company Leo Pharma, which in the first week of January opened its U.S. headquarters in Parsippany.

Leo Pharma last year bought the U.S. rights for psoriasis drugs Dovonex and Taclonex from Warner Chilcott, in Ireland; it plans to use them as a foothold for its dermatology business here, said John Koconis, president and CEO of Leo Pharma’s U.S. operations. The two psoriasis drugs currently log $300 million in U.S. sales; Leo plans to add other psoriasis and eczema drugs it is now developing, he said.

Koconis said New Jersey was attractive because of the access it offers to pharmaceutical talent in sales and marketing, regulatory, legal and compliance functions, as well as the presence of companies in marketing services, recruitment and medical education. The company currently has six employees in Parsippany and plans to grow that to 25 this year, besides hiring roughly 100 field staffers across the country, he said.

The state also happens to be the preferred take-off market for BioNeutral Group Inc., which is based out of an incubator at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark. The company is in the final stages of developing two chemistry-based products, Ygiene and Ogiene, that neutralize harmful environmental contaminants, toxins and dangerous microorganisms such as bacteria, mold, fungi and spores, said Andy Kielbania, its chief scientist and the inventor of those products.

New Jersey makes sense for BioNeutral because of access to its target market — the makers of household cleaning products and disinfectants, as well as suppliers to hospitals, said its CEO, Steve Browand. The publicly held company will grow its staff from three to 20 or 25 in the foreseeable future, he said. (Read More)

Source: NJBiz.com