Incentives help pharmaceutical company to relocate to Piscataway
When Innopharma Inc. ran out of space at its South Brunswick office, company officials began the search for a new home for the growing pharmaceutical and research company.
“New Jersey is the pharmaceutical capital of the world, so for our industry it made sense to stay here,” said Reema Puri, director of human relations and operations for the company, now based in Piscataway. “When the building became available, it was the right place at the right time. It’s centrally located. It’s close to the highways, airports and train stations.”
But there also is a financial incentive for the company to remain in the Garden State — the New Jersey Economic Development Association’s Business Employment Incentive Program or BEIP.
“This is the first year we’ll fill in paperwork for the award, which gives us a tax incentive for every new person we hire in New Jersey,” she said.
Since taking office in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie and his administration have implemented various economic strategies to jump-start the state’s economy and make the Garden State more business-friendly.
Through the Partnership for Action, the administration has continued to advance policies that will improve New Jersey’s business climate, including the need to exercise fiscal discipline and spending restraint, Michael Drewniak, the governor’s press secretary, said.
Drewniak said the administration has sunset the corporate business tax surcharge; put a hard, 2 percent cap on property taxes; signed new, robust business attraction legislation and protected businesses from an average $400 per employee, or 52-percent increase, in the unemployment insurance payroll tax.
Those policies, coupled with the governor’s “Creating Jersey Jobs Summit,” Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s “100 Businesses” initiative, and a recent Illinois ad campaign promoting New Jersey as a destination for businesses, all demonstrate that New Jersey is well-positioned for business expansion, economic growth and job creation as the economy recovers, Drewniak said.
MX Solar USA, an Italian solar-panel manufacturer, opened its first U.S. plant in Franklin Township (Somerset County) last June.
“New Jersey after California is the number-two market for solar in the country,” said Carlos Santoro, director of business development. “If you’re going to open up a company dedicated to solar, New Jersey seemed like a good choice because it’s not as saturated as California.”
Location, location, location
For an Italian company, it’s also a little easier to travel to New Jersey than the West Coast, he said.
Santoro said Franklin was selected because of its strategic location.
“It’s close to the airports, close to the ports and close to both (a) skilled and blue-collar work force,” Santoro said. “It’s not a low-cost area, but it was a good compromise. The determining factor in everything was that we found the right building we were looking for in terms of office and production space.”
Santoro said as an added bonus, the company, which is expecting to have almost 200 employees on its roster by year’s end, also is taking advantage of the Edison Clean Energy Manufacturing Fund incentive from the state.
“It’s a low or zero-interest loan for clean energy companies and a small portion is a cash grant,” he said. “It definitely helps offset some of your start-up costs.”
United Silicon Carbide recently moved from New Brunswick to Monmouth Junction in South Brunswick in search of extra space.
“We’ve roughly developed the size of the facility and have a staff of 10,” said president and CEO Chris Dries said. “It’s small numbers, but we’re basically doubling every year.”
Dries said there is a lot of support for clean energy in the state.
The company is in the process of securing a $500,000 Edison Innovation Clean Energy Fund Award that will help support its product.
“The only challenge we face is growing a manufacturing company in the state,” Dries said. “It’s difficult in terms of making it affordable for technicians to live here.”
Joseph J. Seneca, a professor of economics at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said he believes the governor’s plan is a good start, but warned “there is a lot of hard work ahead and there is no single magic bullet that will repair the state’s economic climate.”
Seneca said the “broad portfolio approach is what is called for and couldn’t be more on target.
“They are working on reducing regulations and are looking at taxes on businesses,” he said. “They are bringing on economic incentives. I see this as highly appropriate, timely and encouraging in the sense that it has brought private sector participation, has independence and reflects a growing bipartisan realization that New Jersey can only prosper if both businesses and individuals make choices to invest and reside here.”
Inspire Pharmaceuticals Announces Q4 Results (ISPH)
Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ISPH) announced strong quarterly results for its fiscal fourth quarter of the year. The company stock reacted positively to the news and is currently trading at $4.36, up 3.32 percent from its previous close. However, the company also announced that it would be cutting 65 jobs. Inspire Pharmaceuticals announced its fourth quarter net loss at $4.3 million, or 5 cents in loss per share. The company was expected to report its loss at 12 cents per share. Inspire Pharmaceuticals had incurred $2.6 million in loss during the corresponding quarter of the last year. For its full year, the company reduced its loss to $35.4 million, down from $40 million in loss it had incurred last year. The company’s full year net loss was expected to be at 50 cents per share.
It is engaged in the business of researching and marketing prescription pharmaceutical products. The company specializes in medicines for pulmonary and ophthalmic diseases. Elestat, AzaSite and Restasis are among its best selling products. The company is operational in the United States and Canada. Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. was founded in 1993 and it is based out of North Carolina. It has supply and licensing agreement with many companies such as Santen Pharma. The company also has collaboration with InSite Vision for the commercialization of AzaSite.
Inspire Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $4.24 and touched the high of $4.50. The stock’s lowest price in today’s session is $4.16. The company stock’s beta is 0.93. The company stock has traded in the range of $3.43 and $8.74 during the past 52 weeks. The company’s market cap is $360.36 million.
For the quarter ended Sep 30, 2010, Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported its quarterly adjusted revenue of $26.732 million. The company reported its net income from continuing operations at ($7.558) million. Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. had current assets worth $126.321 million at the end of the quarter and its total assets have been valued at $146.282 million. As on the end of the quarter, Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. had current liabilities valued at $47.577 million and its total liabilities were $49.492 million.
BioMarin Pharmaceutical loses $12.2M in Q4
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. lost $12.2 million in the December quarter, compared with a $4.7 million profit a year earlier.
The company’s revenue rose to $101.6 million in the quarter, up from $87.1 million a year earlier.
BioMarin (NASDAQ: BMRN), based in Novato, blamed the fourth quarter loss on $13.7 million in debt conversion expenses.
For the year ended December, BioMarin earned $205.8 million on revenue of $376.3 million. In 2009, it lost $488,000 on revenue of $324.7 million.
The company recorded a $223.1 million tax benefit in 2010. In the third quarter, the company “reversed its deferred tax asset valuation allowance” and took the credit.
At the end of 2010, BioMarin had an accumulated deficit — how much money it has lost or written off since it started — of $371.3 million. That’s down from $577.1 million a year earlier.