PLATTSBURGH — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer was in Plattsburgh Wednesday to announce a new pharmaceutical company for which Akrimax Pharmaceuticals will manufacture product in Rouses Point.
Rouses Point Pharmaceuticals LLC is the creation of Akrimax Pharmaceuticals executives Joseph Krivulka and Leonard Mazur.
"The company hopes its first-year sales will be in excess of $20 million," Schumer said.
He said private-sector jobs are the best way to pump money into the economy.
Rouses Point Pharmaceuticals will market generic products to chain, wholesale and medical customers across the United States.
Schumer said he has long been committed to bringing low-cost pharmaceutical alternatives to the marketplace. He said that market is poised for rapid growth as a number of companies lose patent protection in the coming years.
Akrimax Manufacturing, a division of Akrimax Pharmaceuticals, is the exclusive producer of the new company's products.
Rouses Point Pharmaceuticals shipped its first product this week. Propranolol-ER is a non-selective beta-blocker used mainly to treat hypertension.
It is a generic form of Inderal, one of the products Wyeth manufactured in Rouses Point.
Rouses Point Pharmaceuticals President Ben Maizel said his goal is for $100 million in growth in the next three years.
Akrimax Pharmaceuticals Chairman Joseph Krivulka said it was amazing how fast Schumer reached out to Pfizer after that company acquired Wyeth, in order to ensure the transition of the Rouses Point facility continues smoothly.
Schumer said Pfizer Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Kindler provided a strong assurance they wanted to do just that.
Krivulk said the same thing happened when Akrimax was meeting to obtain funding from GE Capital for expansion and improvements as the current credit crisis hit.
He said that has helped Akrimax be ahead of schedule on its transition into the Rouses Point plant. It is scheduled to take over the facility at the end of this year.
There are up to 30 projects that could be part of that change, Krivulka said.
Akrimax Vice Chairman Leonard Mazur said the announcement is an opportunity to start turning around the economic doom and gloom present throughout the country.
"What we see here today is actually historical," he said.
It is an unprecedented partnership between politicians, regulators and business people.
"You wouldn't have seen that five years ago," Mazur said.
It is the latest in a series of moves that will help preserve the 500 jobs at the Wyeth plant in Rouses Point and could even lead to a larger work force.
Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas said Schumer realizes better than many of his colleagues the importance of working with the private sector.
"That's where job growth will occur," he said.
The acquisition of the Wyeth facility was the start of the journey, he said, and announcements such as this show its forward progress.
Akrimax Pharmaceuticals President Alan Rubino said the company expects to use all 500 of Wyeth's current employees. The number of additional upcoming projects could actually increase its work force, with well-paying jobs.
Akrimax Vice President for Government Affairs Tim Soule said the average salary at the Rouses Point plant is about $50,000.
Rubino said Wyeth has been a great partner during the transition.
Schumer said in too many instances a company just shutters a facility and leaves town. He credited Wyeth with going out of its way to find a partner to work with to save those jobs.
Rouses Point Mayor George Rivers said he hopes the village's relationship with Akrimax and now Rouses Point Pharmaceuticals lasts as long as or longer than its relationship with Wyeth. He said it's been a pleasure to work with the Akrimax team.
"Economically, it means that businesses are going to stay in Rouses Point," he said.
E-mail Dan Heath at: dheath@pressrepublican.com
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