CUTTING-EDGE DRUG RESEARCH ON NW SIDE

Half of new compounds produced for pharmacy giant made in labs here

Ian Friedman Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, February 7, 2010 12:00 am

Drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis employs 100,000 people worldwide, but it is the 66 employees at its Oro Valley research center who have developed about half of the company's drug compounds.

The Sanofi-Aventis Oro Valley office recently moved into a new 110,350-square-foot research center at 2090 E. Innovation Park Drive, and will soon transfer up to 15 workers from other sites who will further expand the company's role here.

The Oro Valley center serves as a lead discovery laboratory that specializes in generating compounds for high-priority drug-development projects, said Beth Koch, its site director.

At the same time, it is stimulating the growth of Tucson's biotechnology industry.

The new center houses two floors of laboratories and office space. Sanofi-Aventis had previously owned one building and leased another totalling about 45,000 square feet of work space.

"We had two people (in an area made for) one person normally. We were holding back buying equipment because we just didn't have room for it," Koch said.

The Tucson arm of Sanofi-Aventis was originally founded in 1990 as a startup company from the University of Arizona.

Called Selectide, the company used an innovative technology that allowed scientists to attach individual compounds to tiny beads for specific testing.

This company would change its name three times before becoming a part of Sanofi-Aventis in 2004, when Aventis was acquired by Sanofi-Synthelabo, said Kim Stone senior manager for health, safety and the environment at the Oro Valley office.

Sanofi-Aventis is a multinational pharmaceutical corporation with 15,000 U.S. employees, offices in more than 100 countries and more than $38.5 billion in profits in 2008, says its corporate Web site. Its global headquarters is in Paris.

The Sanofi-Aventis Oro Valley office serves as a major presence within the company, said Marcel Patek, production, analytical, logistics and systems director for the facility.

The Oro Valley research center has developed 1.2 million compounds, to date, which make up about half of the compounds created by the company's more than 20 worldwide research centers.

The site is able to operate at a high level of efficiency thanks to a unique approach, Patek said.

By using what is known as "combinatorial chemistry," scientists are able to test about 50 individual reactions, allowing them to observe the reactions and make about 5,000 compound combinations based on the observed result.

"You don't have to test everything; you just test a small number and then combine them together," Patek said. "It is a very efficient way to produce libraries of compounds."

Ken Wertman, the site's research director, said the group's productivity and new lab space have caused company executives to notice the Oro Valley unit.

"We have the facilities, the capacity, we have the right mind-set and we have the track record of productivity that brings them to believe that if they could strengthen the work force here it would pay them dividends," Wertman said.

In addition to the Oro Valley center's 66 full-time employees, the site also routinely hosts interns from the UA and visiting scientists from around the world.

Wertman said the fact that the company chose to expand its operations in Pima County says a lot about the region's growing biotechnology industry.

"What is happening in the valley is not second-rate by any stretch of the imagination. It is thinly spread but it is growing and it is growing because it is very much first-tier stuff," Wertman said. "It is small, it is local, and success is critical to everybody's well-being."

Raymond Woosley, president of the Critical Path Institute, a nonprofit organization that aims to increase communication between drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration, said companies like Sanofi-Aventis and Ventana Medical Systems stimulate other biotechnology growth in Pima County.

"(People) are willing to come and lead these small startups because they know if it doesn't work they can go to Roche or they can go to Ventana or Sanofi," Woosley said. "It gives them a backup, it helps create that critical mass of opportunity that allows people to take on startups."

John Sterling, editor in chief of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, said larger companies benefit smaller companies simply because they draw attention to the region.

"When you get something like a major pharmaceutical company that sets up shop in your area, that it is really putting (other) companies on the biotechnology map. Because not only is there research coming from there but collaboration from the local area, both with other biotech companies and universities," Sterling said.

Tucson is extremely important to many of the Sanofi-Aventis scientists, said Fahad Al-Obeidi, a principal research investigator. A large number of people within the company were educated at the UA and many said they enjoy the lifestyle Tucson offers.

Al-Obeidi said he has watched the local biotechnology industry grow up around Selectide and now Sanofi-Aventis.

"When this business started there was not really any biotech activity in the community," Al-Obeidi said. "Later on you see a lot of small companies around here. We feel we were a catalyst to stimulate the rest of the people and also for them to come down here and establish the businesses."

Michael Cusanovich, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the UA and president of Bioindustry Organization of Southern Arizona, said the growth of Selectide should serve as a target for what other small biotechnology companies can become.

"It is a growing industry here and there is no hint on the horizon that it should go south," Cusanovich said. "In fact, given the number of startups, everything points that it is going forward at a reasonable clip."

About Sanofi Aventis:

Created: Aug. 20, 2004

CEO: Greg Irace

Headquarters: Paris

Global Employees: 100,000

DID YOU KNOW

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine unit of Sanofi-Aventis, is the maker of the H1N1 vaccine. Sanofi Pasteur's headquarters are in Lyon, France.