Apotex Will Invest $184 Million to Expand in South Florida

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian drugmaker Apotex Inc. said it will spend $184 million to expand its facilities in South Florida and create 150 new jobs.

The investment, Apotex's largest ever in the U.S., will add space for research and development, manufacturing and packaging, as well as its U.S. headquarters in Miramar, Florida, the closely held company said Wednesday in a statement. The Toronto-based maker of generic drugs, which said it has annual sales of about $2 billion, will continue to operate two existing facilities in Florida.

Growing in the U.S. fits with the company's long-term strategy and reflects the importance of the U.S. and Latin American markets, said Apotex Chief Executive Officer Jeremy B. Desai, who has led the company since 2014. “For us, it was a logical next step if we wanted to expand our footprint in the U.S.,” he said in a telephone interview.

Desai said the decision was made before President Donald Trump, who has promised job creation and economic growth, took office in January. “It's really having access to recruit” the right employees, Desai said. South Florida has about 13,000 life science workers, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, a local economic development group.

“The timing obviously is quite aligned with what's coming out from the new administration,” Desai said. “These are high-tech jobs, and obviously it does fit nicely into the current administration's mandate.”

Once completed, the facilities will allow Apotex to develop and manufacture generic versions of pain medication pills and capsules, as well as double its production of transdermal patches.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jared S. Hopkins in New York at jhopkins38@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Stephen West