January 16, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Pint-sized Florida biopharma Sancilio & Company plans to hire 75 to 100 people in the next year, Chief Executive Officer Fred Sancilio told the South Florida Business Journal, as the company ramps and hiring and expands into a larger space.
The Riviera Beach, Fla.-based pharmaceutical firm has plans to upgrade from its current 85,000-square-foot building, which it has almost completely outgrown, said Sancilio. The firm currently has 150 employees but has been having a hard time finding local talent.
“I hate to say it, but we’ve been raiding the Tampa area a little bit … There’s a hub up there right now,” Sancilio said.
The company is hoping to partner with Florida Atlantic University on a biopharma training program for students, a deal that Sancilio said could be the deciding factor in keeping his company in South Florida.
“If we could find trained people, we could pick them up as fast as we could find them,” he said.
So far, Sancilio has been focused on developing therapies for cardiovascular diseases, with a recently inked deal to license some intellectual property outside companies like fellow Floridian business TherapeuticsMD. The Boca Raton-based women’s health pharmaceutical firm is publicly listed and is a good first step for a company looking to come into its own.
Investors have noticed. In June, the company received $20 million in an investment round, its largest funding since it was created in 2008 from a $700,000 stake by the municipal governments of Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter. Every penny of the latest round is being ploughed right back into Sancilio and its objectives, said its CEO Friday.
“We’re using that $20 million to advance our research programs into and through the clinic,” he said. “All that money will be farmed out to other folks, a lot of which will be in Palm Beach County, to finish our clinical studies.”
