Japanese drug maker Eisai today opened its $100 million, 65,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park.
The Tokyo-based company announced the project in 2006, lured partly by the promise of more than $1 million in state and local incentives. The new facility will produce intravenous drugs to treat diseases such as breast cancer, lung cancer and melanoma.
"The opening of this new facility marks a major milestone in our history," said CEO Haruo Naito, in a prepared statement.
The new facility expands Eisai's operations in RTP, where it already had a 190,000 square-foot manufacturing and research facility. That factory makes various products, including Aricept, left, the world's best-selling treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
The company now employs 325 people in RTP and could add more as additional drugs win regulatory approval.
Eisai's U.S. subsidiary is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., and recently reported annual sales of $3.9 billion.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or