Jim Miller, general manager of Centocor, stands in the lab amidst much biotech activity. LET'S MAKE A DEAL TIMING WAS EVERYTHING FOR CENTOCOR By Sue Britt Jim Miller has been the general manager of Centocor, a biotech subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, since March 2004, but he has been coming to work at that same building, just south of Lambert International Airport, for 18 years. He first worked for Invitron, later Centocor (before it was bought by Johnson & Johnson), then Chiron, Genetics Institute and then Genetics Institute/Wyeth BioPharma (when Wyeth BioPharma bought Genetics Institute). He is especially pleased to be working at the facility today because on December 18, 2003 Wyeth BioPharma announced they would close the site and lay off over 300 employees within 90 days, Miller says. The projected demand for the pharmaceutical drug Wyeth BioPharma had been working on there (ReFacto® Antihemophilic Factor, a recombinant hemophilia A treatment) was less than the company originally anticipated. “Unfortunately the market didn’t develop for it and they didn’t need the capacity,” Miller says. The company explored several options for the building and was in discussions with potential buyers at the time, but Miller wasted no time contacting regional leaders for help. “We quickly got together with RCGA and they brought the County and the State in,” Miller says. Miller noted in response to the possible closure of the plant, “(RCGA President) Dick Fleming had (RCGA Vice President for business development) Jim Alexander put together a team and had them out here the day the press release went out.” To move fast on a deal was of the essence because of the nature of the business. If the company could be sold quickly, there would be no need for FDA recertification that could take a number of years had the facility closed up shop. “They were only going to keep that facility hot for about 60 days, (before they would begin to) shut down a lot of the systems,” Alexander, says. If that had happened, the facility would begin losing certifications. “That was a great deal of the value of that plant,” Alexander says. Within two and a half weeks regional players from the RCGA, Missouri and St. Louis County departments of economic development were in a meeting with Wyeth BioPharma, about the goal of landing a new user for the facility. “We were told at the time that there were a couple of interested parties,” Alexander says. “We had a very small universe of companies that would be a potential buyer for that facility. By April it would have been cold and therefore would have lost a lot of its value.” Everyone involved understood the critical nature of the project, and between the State and the County a number of tax credit and training programs were offered in writing, to be used in negotiations to get the facility sold. There were three components to the incentives: tax credits for retraining of the workforce; real estate tax abatement; and Missouri BUILD tax credits, Miller says. “Every incentive was being offered to be sure the deal would be consummated, and we would be able to keep this technology and build on the life sciences initiatives in this area,” Miller says. “It definitely greased the wheels and provided for a smoother and more timely decision. It just made it easier and more compelling.” In the first week of February the State, County and RCGA signed on to a non-disclosure agreement with Johnson & Johnson and Centocor, and began negotiating possible incentives the County and the State would be able to provide. Before mid-February there was another meeting at Centocor’s headquarters in Pennsylvania. “You can see that things moved pretty quickly,” Alexander says. “(We) talked in more detail about the project, and getting down to the very, very fine details of the incentive package. We spent the better part of the morning getting details on the project. It was a very intense and necessary meeting to move this project forward, which we were very fortunate to do in such a short period of time.” After that there were more internal meetings, including meetings with the City of Berkley. “We were under the provisions of this non-disclosure agreement,” Alexander says. “We have to be very, very careful. Obviously, the firms that we work with are concerned about their competition. That’s something that happens quite frequently.” This deal was put together very quickly, Jodi Krantz, senior project manager with the business development and trade division of the Missouri Department of Economic Development says. “It was probably one of the faster moving projects we’ve ever worked on,” Krantz says. “This is pretty exciting that we could come in and show the cooperation between the State, the County and the RCGA…so that all the people who work there could keep their jobs.” Before the end of March, Johnson & Johnson/Centocor made the announcement that they would be taking over the building adjacent to the airport where Miller has been coming to work for 18 years. “No one missed a paycheck,” Steve Anderson, vice president of business development with St. Louis County Economic Council, says. “It was a hell of a success.” The employees in St. Louis were one of the selling points in the deal, Alexander says. They come from a cross-section of science-related backgrounds, such as biology, chemistry and bio-chemistry. “Those people were also very important. One of the key points, why they wanted the facility, was the employees,” Alexander says. “This was a model facility. Other facilities around the world were based on this facility here in St. Louis.” About 60 percent of the employees have undergraduate and graduate degrees. Another 20 percent have two-year degrees and 20 percent are high school graduates. Under the agreement with the St. Louis County Economic Council, minimum wages for full-time employees will be $14 per hour. “This is an industry that has a bright future in St. Louis and the region in general,” Miller says. “It requires well-educated and highly trained employees and provides good paying jobs. It’s environmentally friendly and is considered an engine for the future growth of the economy.” Having Johnson & Johnson’s biopharma star, Centocor establish itself in the St. Louis region helps create a critical mass, and furthers the BioBelt in an important way. “This was obviously a very successful project for the region. It solidified the region…in literally 100 days or so, as one of the leaders of the medical products biotech industry,” Alexander says. “We who worked on this project are very hopeful that Centocor and Johnson & Johnson have a long and very successful facility.”

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