August 1, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
RALEIGH, N.C. – Lifestar Pharma, a U.S. subsidiary of India’s Mankind Pharma will open up a new hub for manufacturing and research and development in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.
The company acquired property for $7.8 million, the Triangle Business Journal reported this morning. Lifestar has a product portfolio of generic drugs for dermatology, gynecology, ophthalmology, respiratory and other indications. However, there are few details about the company’s approved products on the Mankind website.
In a statement Vijay Soni, Lifestar’s chief executive officer, said company executives are excited about the move to North Carolina as it looks to expand its U.S. footprint.
The Journal reported that Lifestar acquired the 97,000 square-foot warehouse from an Indianapolis-based owner. Lifestar had been focused on opening a presence in North Carolina and has been quietly looking for a facility for several months, the Journal noted.
Now that Lifestar has acquired the property though, how long it will take the company to set up shop in North Carolina and if it intends to begin hiring locally is unclear. The Journal said few details were available regarding the transaction or the company’s intentions.
The RTP area is well known as one of the strongest biotech hubs in the United States.” RTP is surrounded by top companies, as well as innovative academic programs at area universities including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and N.C. State University.
Since 2010, the state’s science industry has grown by more than 11 percent, with the number of jobs related to life sciences having increased by 15 percent. In North Carolina, the economic impact of life sciences has grown by 34 percent over the past eight years to $86 billion. North Carolina has more than 650 life sciences companies within its borders, which provide an average salary of $78,000 and directly employ approximately 63,000 people. The number of people directly employed by life science companies has grown over the past six years from 2010 employment of 56,842, according to a report released earlier this year by the N.C. Biotech Center.
Life science companies that call North Carolina home include Veloxis, Patheon , Rho, Mayne Pharma , Cempra , INC Research and more. Plenty of large pharmaceutical companies also maintain presences in the state including GlaxoSmithKline , Pfizer , Biogen and Bayer .
Lifestar Pharma is based in Mahwah, N.J.. Its parent company Mankind Pharma, not to be confused with MannKind Corporation , is based in New Delhi.
