By Karen Blackledge
RIVERSIDE - A new agreement with Cherokee Pharmaceuticals LLC and DuPont Applied BioSciences will result in 10 new jobs this year at the Riverside plant.
The jobs will be in addition to the current workforce of 415, according to Betse Humphrey, public affairs manager at the plant, which is owned by PRWT Services Inc.
Cherokee announced Monday it had signed a major new 5 and a half year commercial supply agreement with DuPont Applied BioSciences, a division of DuPont.
Cherokee will manufacture a new product for DuPont using a DuPont proprietary fermentation process at its Riverside location.
Since the project is new and not yet on the market, Humphrey said she couldn’t disclose details about what type of product it would be.
Initial production is scheduled to begin late this year. The additional jobs will be those that supply that fermentation process, she said.
Cherokee has a fermentation facility at its east end and an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility at its west end. The fermentation facility is where it manufactures Xanthan Gum, a food thickener.
According to the Cherokee announcement, over the term of the contract, production is expected to take a significant proportion of Cherokee’s substantial fermentation capacity.
“We are a contract manufacturer and typically we sign a supply agreement with a company to manufacturer and provide their product,” she said.
Facility development work has already begun at the plant to meet the requirements of the propriety process.
The value of the contract was not disclosed.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to work with DuPont, a leader in the biosciences field,” said John Elliot, president of Cherokee Pharmaceuticals. “This agreement is a strong testament to our ability to compete successfully in the global marketplace, even in this tighter economic climate,” he said.
The DuPont contract is consistent with Cherokee Pharamaceuticals’ strategy to diversity its customer base.
Since acquiring the Riverside location in January 2008, Cherokee has initiated the three-fold expansion of its multipurpose manufacturing facility to increase its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing capacity. The company also developed and launched a strategic partnership with SAFC, a member of the Sigma Aldrich Group offering sourcing and distribution services, according to Monday’s announcement.
Cherokee is a bulk chemical manufacturing and distribution company producing active pharmaceutical ingredients and providing fermentation capabilities as well as process development, analytical laboratory testing, fine chemical sourcing, distribution and warehouse services.
The plant manufactures APIs used in several antibiotics along with newly developed compounds for cholesterol management, cancer and HIV treatment.
