Puerto Rico, long a mainstay of solid-dosage manufacturing, is not only continuing its efforts in that area, but is further diversifying in the life sciences by building its position in biopharmaceuticals and by moving further up in the pharmaceutical value chain through supporting research and development. I am here on the island this week on the occasion of the opening of a new solid-dosage manufacturing facility by Blu Pharmaceuticals, a Kentucky-based generic-drug manufacturer and distribution company, and am visiting with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO), the economic development agency of Puerto Rico, to gain an update of bio/pharmaceutical investment in the commonwealth.

Blu Pharmaceuticals acquired a 145,000-square-foot FDA-approved facility in Dorado, Puerto Rico, which was previously owned by the generic-drug company Biovail (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada). Biovail announced in May 2008 that it would be phasing out its solid-dosage manufacturing facility in Dorado. Blu Pharmaceuticals’ new facility in Dorado, Blu Caribe, is the first new pharmaceutical factory to open in Puerto Rico since 2007, when the generic-drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals (Jerusalem) acquired an existing manufacturing facility. Blu Pharmaceuticals plans to invest $60 million in the facility during the next three years. Plans call for Blu Caribe to manufacture seven different drugs in the Puerto Rico facility, including ciprofloxacin, which is the antidote to anthrax. The company also has plans to establish a research and development (R&D) operation within the Dorado facility, which has a pilot plant that will allow the company to run small batches of product under development.

As the pharmaceutical industry as a whole undergoes restructuring and rationalization of its manufacturing network, it is good news for pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs such as Puerto Rico to locate new investment. But like the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, Puerto Rico, is diversifying its pharmaceutical base to include not only solid-dosage manufacturing, an historical and current strength of the island, but also to strengthen its base in the life sciences by building positions in biopharmaceuticals, research, development, medical devices, and new sciences such as nanotechnology.

Several large bio/pharmaceutical companies have biopharmaceutical operations in Puerto Rico, including Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA), Eli Lilly (Indianapolis, IN), and Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL). The island is also developing the Puerto Rico Knowledge Based Corridor in San Juan, which is leveraging existing assets and building new infrastructure and related support services in the biosciences. Plans involve the creation of educational and research campuses with commercial laboratories for science-based research, including drug R&D such as cancer research, as well as providing a platform for incubator companies and further building resources in the biosciences.

We will be providing more detail on current R&D and manufacturing investment in Puerto Rico and on these initiatives in the June issue of Pharmaceutical Technology. The activities in Puerto Rico provide a microcosm of the transformation taking place in the pharmaceutical industry as a whole: namely continued emphasis on new product development and the increasing strategic importance of biologics in companies’ pipelines and product portfolios.