Fighting flu fears

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Fighting flu fears

In response to a potential bird flu pandemic, Roche’s plant near Florence has increased production of the active ingredient in Tamiflu

By JIM DUPLESSIS

jduplessis@...

FLORENCE — Swiss drug maker Roche has ramped up production of the active ingredient of Tamiflu at its plant east of Florence to meet the threat of a bird flu outbreak among humans.

The rapidly rising demand has been met without additional workers or significant new spending on equipment, however.

Roche rearranged equipment to boost production at the plant, one of two worldwide that make the key Tamiflu chemical, said , the plant’s general manager.

Company officials said no further expansion of the Florence plant is needed — at least for now.

The company’s yearly production capacity for Tamiflu has grown from 18 million treatments at the start of 2003 to 300 million in January. The company expects it will start 2007 with the ability to make 400 million treatments.

The active ingredient is made only at Florence and Basel, Switzerland, but those plants aren’t the brake on production.

Most of the bottlenecks involve steps already done outside Florence that convert raw chemicals and assemble them into 10-capsule packets prescribed by doctors. By mid-March, Roche had signed deals with 15 companies to shoulder more of this work at plants from the United States to China.

The move allows Roche to help blunt the threat of a flu that could kill millions, while avoiding the risk of investing billions of dollars in new equipment that might be rendered useless should researchers find better tools for fighting a bird flu.

The strategy also sent work to another South Carolina plant, without requiring additional workers or investment.

Early this year, Martek Biosciences’ Kingstree plant began making shikimic acid, the starter material used to produce Tamiflu. The chemical had been extracted solely from the star anise fruit grown in China. Roche developed a method to produce it without exposing the company’s supply chain to the whims of weather and crops.

Roche’s Florence plant also makes the active ingredient for Xeloda, an oral chemotherapy for certain types of breast and colon cancer. Florence is Roche’s only plant that mills a chemical used to make Xenical, an anti-obesity drug. It also makes a chemical used in Pegasus, a drug used to treat hepatitis C.

The production plant is run by a spare collection of cooks watching a spaghetti of pipes connecting meatballs of stainless-steel, glass-lined vats. The chemical sauce is cooked over 20 hours, moving from the top sixth floor to the bottom, mostly by gravity. Each step is monitored by electronic controls feeding information back to computers and a control room.

“When you walk around our plant, you see very few people,” said. “We don’t have someone reading a pressure gauge or manually opening a valve.”

DREAMS PAST

Roche was considered a key win for South Carolina 14 years ago. State leaders said it would pave the way into pharmaceuticals in the way German automaker BMW was expected to allow the Upstate to develop as an automotive hub.

When the late Gov. Carroll attended the groundbreaking for Roche’s pharmaceutical plant in 1992, the Swiss drug maker said it would create 300 to 460 jobs and invest $500 million.

called Roche’s plans “one of the premier economic developments of the decade.”

“This is the formal start of a mutually beneficial relationship between South Carolina and Roche that will last for years and years,” he said.

’s visit to Florence came three months after he went to the Greenville-Spartanburg airport for BMW’s announcement that it had chosen a site next door for its first factory outside Germany.

BMW said it would invest $250 million to $300 million and hire 2,000 people by 2000. Today its cumulative investment has been more than $2 billion, and it employs about 4,600 people.

Employment among BMW, suppliers and other transportation equipment makers doubled from 1992 to 2004, when they employed nearly 32,000 people in South Carolina. Since 1997 growth has been 5.6 percent per year. The 2004 wage was $45,742, 20 percent less than the U.S. average for those industries.

Roche and other pharmaceutical manufacturers employed 2,670 people in South Carolina in 2004, rising 2.9 percent per year since 1997. Yearly pay was $45,019 in 2004, or 45 percent less than the U.S. average for pharmaceuticals.

Roche has attracted no suppliers, but one spin-off company has formed, county officials said. IRIX Pharmaceuticals, a research and development company founded by a former Roche employee, now has about 100 workers at its Florence headquarters and 40 workers in Greenville.

Roche has invested more than $600 million, but its employment has peaked at 300 workers.

“Our role will continue to be highly flexible, rapidly getting products into the market,” said. “We are the living example of a high-tech industry that came to South Carolina, attracting the work force it needs, and not only surviving, but thriving.”

Production workers at the plant start at about $12 per hour, and with additional training can make $18 to $20 per hour within three to five years, or about $37,400 to $41,600 per year. The plant requires workers to be at least high school graduates with “a good work ethic,” said Cary A. Ashworth, the plant’s human resources director.

About half of Roche’s workers are college-educated professionals, and 9 percent of all employees are chemists and others holding doctoral degrees.

Pay at Roche, even for production workers, is much higher than last year’s average for Florence County (about $31,200), or the state (about $32,300), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Turnover is low. Less than 5 percent of employees leave each year, including those retiring or moving from the area, Ashworth said.

Florence County officials said they’re satisfied with Roche’s employment, adding that the company is a key part of the area’s economy.

Roche paid the equivalent of $1.9 million in property taxes last year, making it the county’s largest taxpayer, said Joe W. King, director of the Florence County Economic Development Partnership.

Roche often hosts lunches for visiting executives with companies considering moving into Florence County, King said. “They’re a good recruiting tool.”

Rusty , chairman of Florence County Council, said jobs at Roche are valued for their above-average pay and benefits.

“We feel they are a valuable asset to the county, and I’m not aware of any concerns about them not expanding,” said.

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