Monday, April 7, 2008

Bristol-Myers job plans ahead of schedule in Devens

By Ryan McBride

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. isn't expected to produce drugs at its plant under construction at Fort Devens until 2011, but that hasn't stopped the New York pharmaceutical company from hiring a bevy of new employees there.

The large drug-maker has already brought on nearly a third of the 350 workers it plans to employ in Devens by 2011, with 105 employees in management and support roles housed at temporary and leased facilities there, said spokeswoman Linda Jordan.

What's more, Bristol-Myers plans to employ 214 people in Devens by the end of 2008.

Finding enough workers for the new plant has been a primary objective of Bristol-Myers', and the company has worked with local community colleges, technical schools and industry officials to ensure it has an ample work force ready when production begins. The company is ahead of its initial hiring plan, which called for 115 workers in Devens by the end of this year, according to state records, rather than the 214 it now expects.

"It takes a lot of people working in advance to get a facility like that up and running," said Peter Abair, director of economic development for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, which has worked with Bristol-Myers to ensure it has enough workers for the Devens plant.

Jordan said that the drug company has nearly finished hiring its management team for the Devens site and is now recruiting for the lab technician and process operator positions that will be two-thirds of the work force there once hired. About half the employees there work in prefabricated, temporary offices in Devens and the others in leased offices in a building owned by the pharma services division of British chemical firm Johnson Matthey PLC.

Last spring, Bristol-Myers began construction on the first phase of the Devens plant. With a projected cost of $750 million and finish date in 2009, the first phase is expected to include two production facilities, a warehouse and an office building. Plans are to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the operation in 2010.

The facilities under construction have a modular design to enable later expansion that could bring the total investment in the operation to $1.1 billion and the number of workers there to 550, according to the company, which likely could afford it. Bristol-Myers, which employs 42,000 workers worldwide, reported a 2007 profit of $2.2 billion on revenue of $19.3 billion.

Plans are to use the plant to produce Orencia, a protein drug approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis, in addition to producing other biological medicines.