Northwest Louisiana Has Healthy Dose of Pharma
Published May 18, 2009
Northwest Louisiana has a long heritage of pharmaceutical manufacturing, an industry that will likely see growth in the next few years, both from existing manufacturers and new ventures that are in drug trials.
In 2008, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, a worldwide pharmaceutical maker based in India, acquired BASF’s existing manufacturing operation in Shreveport that employs about 170 people.
Red River Pharma LLC makes “medical foods” that deliver nutritional compounds that doctors prescribe for problems such as diabetes and dementia. Sage Pharmaceuticals is a smaller operation with a focus on cough and cold remedies, both generic and branded.
Embera NeuroTherapies Inc., housed at InterTech Science Park, is working on new drugs for addiction, anxiety and depression.
The company is testing a new treatment for cocaine addiction that targets the neural network related to the craving rather than mimic or block the effects of the narcotic.
Cedar Pharmaceuticals, another InterTech tenant, specializes in so-called niche pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceutical companies have been part of the region since the mid-1960s, starting with Rucker Pharmacal. The site of Dr. Reddy’s, for example, had been built as a corporate headquarters for one of its predecessors. The company has 42 acres in Shreveport but has developed only half of them for its campus and 300,000-square-foot facility, says Paul Granberry, senior director of Shreveport operations for Dr. Reddy’s.
“We do expect to see some fairly substantial growth in the next 12 to 18 months,” he says.
Dr. Reddy’s is deciding which product lines it will transfer to Shreveport as well as which new lines will be produced in Northwest Louisiana, Granberry says.
Red River Pharma is a wholly owned subsidiary of PamLab LLC, based in Covington, La. It produces PamLab’s line of medical foods and will launch four new products in 2009, two of them for prenatal care, says Charles Wiggins, Red River’s president.
Red River’s staff of 40 is likely to grow as new products come on line, he says.
A skilled local labor force attracted Red River’s shareholders, he says.
“Boots Pharmaceutical and BASF at one time employed 1,000 people,” Wiggins says. “A lot of that labor pool is still in the area.”
Story by Pamela Coyle
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