July 8, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CARY, N.C. – Biologics, Inc. (NC) an oncology services company, expanded into a new 76,000 square foot corporate office building in North Carolina and is making plans to hire more than 300 over the next year, the Triangle Business Journal reported this morning.
The new corporate office is within two miles of the company’s existing 32,000 square foot facility at 120 Weston Oaks Court. The company said the older facility will be retrofitted to accommodate growth of the Biologic’s specialty pharmacy business unit. The company said the expansion in its Cary office is the first in a series of projects for the company. Future expansion projects include a third location in Cary, as well as a West Coast distribution facility, which is expected to open in the beginning of 2016.
Biologics’ planned employment expansion will double the size of its employee roster.
On the company’s website open positions include patient benefits specialist, pharmacy technician, fulfillment pharmacist, clinical pharmacist, patient education coordinator, business analyst and a senior manager of program operations.
The company currently employs 350. Biologics has seen rapid growth over the past few years, increasing employment by about 400 percent. In 2010 the company only employed 68. Stuart Frantz, said the company prides itself on its employee recruitment and retention. Good employees are “critical to strengthening our existing culture and to our future growth,” Frantz said in a statement.
Over the same time frame as its employment growth, Biologics has been awarded new program contracts from numerous pharma companies to support patients with cancer and other complex diseases.Biologics’ employment has grown to support a booming oncology services business.
In April Biologics secured more than $29 million in copay assistance for patients diagnosed with cancer in 2014. One in four of Biologics’ patients request financial assistance to help them afford their medications. Due to the high costs associated with many cancer drugs, patients are often put through a financial strain during the course of their treatment. Last year Biologics was able to more than $21 million in copay assistance for cancer patients.
In March Biologics partnered with Swiss-based Novartis AG to distribute Farydak for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior regimens, including bortezomib and an immunomodulatory agent. Farydak was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February. Biologics’ Patient Access Services team will perform benefits investigation, benefits verification and prior authorization services. Additionally, Biologics’ team will facilitate copayment or coinsurance assistance offered by the manufacturer or third-party foundations for eligible patients.
Biologics also inked a distribution deal with Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to provide two oncology medications, Nexavar and Stivarga. Nexavar was approved for the treatment of various carcinomas, including progressive, differentiated thyroid carcinoma, unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma and advanced renal cell carcinoma. Stivarga was approved for the treatment of metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor and metastatic colorectal cancer.
Biologics began as an oncology pharmacy, then expanded to include services for every stakeholder in cancer care to include oncology pharmacy services, patient access, strategic market solutions and clinical research services.
As New Jersey Biotech Booms, Will It Overtake Other States As Prime Location?
A week after Celgene Corporation announced it is officially the mystery buyer of Merck & Co. ’s former 1 million-square-foot R&D site in Summit, N.J., it quickly became our most popular story last week.
The company announced last Wednesday that it is buying the space, ending months of speculation about what Big Pharma company might move into the neighborhood.
The Summit, N.J. site is zoned research/office. The New Jersey site would put operations closer to some of the major biotech and pharmaceutical hubs on the East Coast.
But, by far, the most tempting part of doing business in the state remains New Jersey’s operating tax credit, which allows companies to sell their net operating losses to the New Jersey Treasury. One of the state’s most recognizable biotechs, Celgene, used the program until it became profitable, which was key to it staying in the state, said local officials.
That has BioSpace is wondering if New Jersey is becoming the new face of biotech. What do you think? Can the Garden State compete with other longtime stalwarts like California or Boston?
