Regeneron opts for expansion in Westchester

Westchester”™s fastest growing and the state”™s largest biotech company, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.,  plans to expand again in 2010 and increase its total work force by 40 percent after recently extending its lucrative drug development agreement with French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-aventis.

Though courted by New Jersey officials, Regeneron has decided to lease a third new building on the Landmark at Eastview campus in the town of Greenburgh, where it occupies about 390,000 square feet, to accommodate 250 employees it expects to hire over the next year. In all the company, which has grown from four employees in 1989 to about 1,000 this year, plans to add 400 employees, including workers at its manufacturing plant in upstate Rensselaer, said Christopher Fenimore, Regeneron”™s finance director. Regeneron has more than 700 employees in Greenburgh and more than 200 in Rensselaer.?The Empire State Development Corp. will provide a $2.125 million capital grant to keep the company in Westchester. The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency on Thursday agreed to provide tax exemptions for the expansion project and a payment in lieu of taxes agreement that state officials estimated to be worth $1.5 million in savings for the company.

An attorney for Regeneron in its application to the county IDA said the financial assistance was needed to offset significantly higher leasing and construction costs in New York than at facilities  being considered in New Jersey, where Regeneron operates a satellite office near Sanofi-aventis”™ U.S. headquarters in Bridgewater.

The company in late summer moved into two new buildings and 229,000 square feet of lab and office space at The Landmark at Eastview. Those buildings adjoin 755 Old Saw Mill River Road, a 131,000-square-foot shell building marketed this year by Landmark”™s owner, BioMed Realty Trust Inc. Regeneron will spend an estimated $39 million to complete construction and equip that building.

The project is expected to generate about 75 to 100 full-time construction jobs over an 18-month construction period.

 

Gov. David A. Paterson on Thursday announced the state grant to encourage the company”™s expansion in Greenburgh. “As New York”™s largest biotech company, Regeneron is an excellent example of the type of investment that will revive our economy and expand opportunities for all New Yorkers,” he said. “With key green initiatives in BioMed”™s Landmark at Eastview campus, Regeneron”™s state-of-the-art facilities will help its scientists focus on their work as the company continues to grow, securing hundreds of New York jobs.”

Regeneron last month announced its 2-year-old collaboration with Sanofi-aventis to discover, develop and market fully human therapeutic antibodies was extended another five years, through 2017, with higher levels of funding from the pharmaceutical company based in Paris, France.

Starting in 2010, Sanofi-aventis will increase its annual research funding commitment from $100 million to $160 million. The new agreement provides an increase of up to $1 billion incrementally for research.

The companies”™ shared goal is to advance an average of four to five antibodies into clinical development each year. To date four antibodies are in clinical development, including treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, pain and advanced malignant cancers. The companies have applied to begin clinical trials for a fifth antibody. The targets of two of the antibodies have not been disclosed.

Development costs for drug candidates will be shared, with Sanofi-aventis providing up-front funding and Regeneron reimbursing half of the development costs from its share of future profits from commercialized products. U.S. profits will be shared equally; outside the U.S., Sanofi-aventis”™ share of profits will range from 65 percent to 55 percent.

Regeneron is entitled to receive up to a total of $250 million of sales milestone payments when antibody products achieve certain aggregate annual sales levels outside the U.S., starting at $1 billion.

Regeneron, a NASDAQ-traded company, reported a third-quarter net loss of $1 million, or 1 cent a share, compared with a net loss of $19.1 million, or 24 cents a share, for the third quarter of 2008. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company reported a net loss of $31.3 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $49.6 million, or 63 cents a share, for the same period in 2008.

Regeneron ended the third quarter with approximately $439 million in cash and securities and no debt. Its year-end cash position is estimated at $380 million to $390 million.