Posted Aug 17, 2018, 3:04 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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Originally Posted by Milksteak
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Six years after entering the region with the acquisition of two small drug companies, Jazz Pharmaceuticals has grown to 160 employees here — or “Jazzicians” as the company likes to call its workers.
On Monday, the company, after outgrowing its old space, official unveiled its new Center City 46,000-square-foot office on two floors at Commerce Square at 2005 Market St.
Jazz President and COO Dan Swisher, said the company plans to add more people in Philadelphia, which is serving as its East Coast headquarters.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we are at 200 by 2020, if not sooner,” Swisher said.
Based in Dublin, Ireland, Jazz has other offices in Palo Alto, Calif., and Oxford, England.
Its Philadelphia staff consists of workers in its commercial development, medical affairs, clinical and regulator affairs and administration departments.
The company’s areas of focus are sleep disorders and hematology/oncology. Its approved products include Xyrem, a treatment for narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy; Erwinaze and Vyxeos, treatments for certain types of leukemia; and Defitelio, a treatment for a rare liver complication in patients following stem cell transplants. Xyrem is its top-selling product with sales of $672.8 million during the first six months of this year, when the company’s total revenues during the same period were $945 million. Jazz had total revenues of $1.6 billion in 2017.
Jazz entered the local market by buying Azur Pharma is a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company based in Dublin that had its U.S. operations in Philadelphia, in 2012. Later the same year, it acquired EUSA Pharma, a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Langhorne and the United Kingdom.
“This area is an important hub of life sciences talent and we wanted to establish an East Coast presence,” Swisher said. He noted in Palo Alto, where the company has about 400 employees, the cost of living and price of housing has life sciences companies competing for the same limited pool of workers. Swisher said Philadelphia is an attractive location to attract skilled industry workers from all along the East Coast.
Swisher said when U.S. jobs at Jazz open up or are created, in many instances, employees are given the option of working in Pal Alto or Philadelphia.
Jazz also plans to grow the relationships it has built with the region’s academic health centers and research institutions through clinical trials, Swisher said.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney participated in Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Jazz office. “Jazz’s growth is the latest example of Philadelphia’s flourishing life sciences industry,” Kenney said. “You are showing that private industry is willing to invest in Philadelphia.”
Jazz is not disclosing the amount of its investment at the Commerce Square site.
Kenney pledged to continue efforts to provide the training needed so city students are equipped to work in tech industries like life sciences. “We want to break the generational cycle of poverty and jobs like these [at Jazz Pharmaceuticals] are ones that help do that,” he said.
In April, Jazz bought a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher from Philadelphia-based Spark Therapeutics for $110 million. Spark received the voucher after the FDA approved the company’s new drug application for Luxturna in December. Luxturna is its gene therapy treatment for an inherited retinal disease that leads to blindness if untreated. Companies become eligible for the voucher when they receive a rare pediatric disease designation for a new drug candidate. The designation is given to experimental therapies targeting serious or life-threatening diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. Vouchers, which can be sold, entitle the holder to receive an accelerated review of any subsequent new drug application. The voucher program is an inducement for companies to pursue therapies for rare disorders.
Swisher said the company has not yet decided how it will use the voucher.
“We viewed that as a strategic asset,” he said. “We have potential candidates in-house [for the voucher], or we could use it with something we acquire down the road.”
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