A Danville-based pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing company will expand its operations in the city with a $6.1 million investment.
Engineered BioPharmaceuticals Inc., established in 2001, has a current lab space in the Dan River Business Development Center. The company will expand to its first standalone facility, which will be located on Ecomnets Way.
The new facility will undergo an upfitting to prepare it for the company’s use, said CEO Carl Sahi in an email to Cardinal.
The building will allow the company to adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), a set of regulations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in the manufacturing of “innovative oral pharmaceutical dosing platforms, designed to enhance patient compliance and therapeutic efficacy,” according to a Feb. 1 release from the governor’s office.
Engineered BioPharmaceuticals currently employs six people, said Sahi, and the expansion will create 34 additional jobs.
Virginia competed with California, New York and Texas for this expansion, according to the release. Sahi said in the release that the company chose to expand in Virginia because of the state’s “business friendly environment” and “preeminent biotechnology presence.”
“We also found Pittsylvania County and the City of Danville to be an ideal location because of their people, their economic development efforts, and their support and commitment to workforce development,” Sahi said in the release.
According to the company’s website, Engineered BioPharmaceuticals specializes in the “development, formulations, production and filling of dry powder protein-based pharmaceuticals into novel delivery devices.”
The company can “engineer” powders for a variety of application-specific purposes, the website says, and also prioritizes lowering the cost of healthcare and making critical therapeutic drugs more accessible and user-friendly.
The new facility will allow the company to commercialize its products, including its first product, a prescription gummy that “will offer diabetic individuals an improved ‘user-friendly’ oral therapeutic to help combat hyperglycemia, associated with early stages of diabetes,” the release said.
“Engineered Biopharmaceuticals is a truly unique company that has provided Danville with a totally new segment of industrial jobs,” said Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones in the release. “We appreciate their confidence and investment in our community, and we look forward to seeing the company grow and thrive for many years to come.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the city of Danville and the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance worked together to secure this expansion in Virginia. And Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved a Commonwealth’s Development Opportunity Fund grant of $150,000 to assist Danville with the project.
