Taiwan-based biopharmaceutical company PharmaEssentia has announced its intention to invest $46 million in a manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico already exports more medications than any state and has been called “the medicine cabinet of the United States.” The new facility is part of a renewed emphasis on manufacturing in Puerto Rico and a determined focus on economic growth.
“Establishing a manufacturing subsidiary in Puerto Rico offers several strategic benefits, including access to attractive tax incentives and a mature, well-established biotechnology supply chain,” a spokesperson for PharmaEssentia told BioProcess Insider. “The location provides logistical and geopolitical advantages due to its proximity to the US mainland, along with regulatory and market access benefits associated with ‘Made in the USA.’”
The advantages described have been central to Governor Gonzalez-Colon’s push to encourage U.S. companies to restore in Puerto Rico, but the latest news showed that those advantages are appealing to foreign investors as well.
Who is PharmaEssentia
PharmaEssentia was founded in 2003 by a team of Taiwanese and American scientists. They produce medications for hematology (the medical specialty dealing with blood), oncology (cancer) and immunology (the immune system). These are all areas currently experiencing significant innovation.
Perhaps the company’s best-known product is Besremi, a long-acting interferon therapy approved for treating polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer. This medication influences the human immune system to respond to the cancer by reducing production of red blood cells by the bone marrow. Estimates of costs hover in the $180,000 range annually, and the medication is designed to be used throughout the patient’s lifetime. As long as it is covered by its patent, this will certainly be a highly profitable medication. While keeping any of the profit from pharmaceuticals in Puerto Rico has been a challenge, the new PharmaEssentia facility is expected to create nearly 100 new jobs in its initial stages, with more jobs likely as production ramps up.
“With its skilled workforce and well-established biotech ecosystem, Puerto Rico provides a strong foundation to support future US and global demand for BESREMi,” said the company spokesperson.
“We are proud to take this important step toward establishing U.S.-based manufacturing,” Ko-Chung Lin, PharmaEssentia’s founder and CEO, said in a statement, “with Puerto Rico serving as a future center for the U.S. market.”
Supply chain security
A Taiwanese company may be concerned about threats from China. The United States is also nervous about such threats, especially in the face of growing Chinese influence in the Americas. For the United States, the dominance of China and India on the global medical supply chain is a matter of national security. The shorter supply chain from Puerto Rico to the states is a big step toward greater medical resilience.
For Puerto Rico, the infrastructure investments of manufacturers setting up shop on the Island can help with the security of the overall supply chain.
The post More Pharma Manufacturing Investments in Puerto Rico appeared first on PUERTO RICO REPORT.
