Grifols, the Spanish biotechnology company with a major Triangle presence, is shutting down a test lab in Raleigh that employs 51 people.

The company announced the closing of the facility at 1200 New Hope Road in a letter filed this week with the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Grifols spokeswoman Becky Levine said the closure was announced to employees in April and that the workers were offered transfers to the company's new testing lab in San Marcos, Tex.

Grifols acquired local company Talecris for $3.4 billion in 2011.

Levine said the plan to shift jobs from Raleigh to San Marcos was set in motion several years ago before Grifols acquired Talecris.

Grifols has corporate offices in Research Triangle Park and operates a massive manufacturing facility in Johnston County. It also operates Talecris Plasma Resources, a plasma collection center in Raleigh, and Raleigh Test Lab, a plasma testing facility.

The company employs 2,350 people in the Triangle.

The CEO of Grifols S.A. said Monday evening that his Spanish company’s acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics would likely result in minimal job cuts.

Victor Grifols Roura said he expects the total number of jobs eliminated to be less than 5 percent of the 8,500 people Grifols now employs in the U.S. after acquiring Talecris.

“Talecris is a very efficient company,” Grifols said. “We are not coming here with a sword.”

How many of those job cuts might occur in the Triangle, where Talecris employs more than 2,000 people, is unclear.

Grifols has operations in Los Angeles and the merger will create some redundant positions.

But Grifols said his team is interested in keeping the best employees, no matter if they are located in Los Angeles or the Triangle. He said Grifols will maintain a large executive presence in the Triangle.

“I don’t care if they live here or in Los Angeles,” he said.

Grifols, the Spanish company that recently completed its acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics, announced today a new board of directors for its U.S. operations.

Gregory Rich, who has served as CEO of Grifols U.S. operations since 2003, will oversee Talecris' operations in the Triangle, which include a massive blood plasma plant in Clayton and corporate offices in Research Triangle Park.

Thomas Glanzmann was named chairman of the U.S. board. He will also oversee the integration of Talecris into Grifols.

Glanzmann was previously president and CEO of Gambro, which manufactures and supplies products and therapies for kidney and liver dialysis, and other therapies.

He stepped down as CEO earlier this year.
 

The head of Spain's Grifols is optimistic his company's $4 billion takeover of Talecris Biotherapeutics will win approval from U.S. antitrust regulators.

Grifols and Talecris, which is based in Research Triangle Park, both make medicines from blood plasma. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the proposed union to make sure it doesn't lead to higher prices for such drugs. The FTC blocked an earlier Talecris takeover by an Australian company because of antitrust concerns.

“I have in my bag $4 billion sitting and waiting to be invested,” CEO Victor Grifols said at an event in Madrid, Bloomberg News reported. “I don’t know when we’ll receive the green light from the FTC. I’m sure we’ll get it, but it’s a very long process. As soon as we get approval we are going to invest it.”

Grifols and Talecris have extended the deadline for their deal to June 30, which would be more than a year after it was announced.

The fact that Grifols' CEO is discussing it suggests an FTC decision could be coming soon.

Talecris Biotherapeutics reported solid fourth quarter earnings today as it awaits word on whether federal regulators will approve its $4 billion buyout by Grifols of Spain.

Talecris reported fourth-quarter revenue of $410.8 million, up 5.3 percent from the same period last year. Net income rose 19 percent to $68.5 million.

For the year, Talecris had revenue of $1.6 billion, up 4.5 percent from the prior year.

Last week, Talecris shareholders approved the deal with Grifols.

It won't close before March 21, and the deadline could be extended further.

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the deal to make sure it doesn't hurt consumers or lead to higher prices for medicines made from blood plasma.

Talecris Biotherapeutics shareholders approved the company’s proposed $4 billion takeover by of Spain this afternoon, but the deal still needs approval from U.S. antitrust regulators.

During a meeting at the Research Triangle Park Marriott, shareholders owning 85 percent of Talecris’ outstanding common stock voted in favor of the deal.

Grifols acquisition of Talecris won’t close before March 21, and Talecris CEO Larry Stern told shareholders that the deadline could be extended further.

“There can be no assurance that Grifols will reach resolution with the [Federal Trade Commission] by March 20, 2011,” Stern said.

“Certainly, however, the FTC, Grifols and we would not be engaging in discussions and extending the timeline if we did not believe that these discussions were worthwhile. We remain optimistic that Grifols will ultimately reach resolution with the FTC.”

Grifols announced in June its plan to buy Talecris, which is based in Research Triangle Park and is North Carolina’s largest biotechnology company.
 

Grifols SA's proposed purchase of Talecris must still receive approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The Spanish firm's executives said today they are confident the deal will be approved, largely because it is smaller than Australia's CSL Ltd.

CSL tried to buy Talecris in 2008 for $3.1 billion, but the deal ran into problems with antitrust regulators.

In a research note about the Grifols-Talecris deal, Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Aaron Reames notes that the combined companies would control 31 percent of the blood plasma market in the U.S.

That's less than the 43 percent market share a CSL-Talecris merger would have captured, and less than the 36 percent market share competitor Baxter already has.

As for why Talecris is being swallowed up just nine months after going public, the answer likely has to do with the company's largest shareholders.

Talecris Biotherapeutics, the Triangle's largest biotechnology company, held its first ever annual stockholders meeting this morning in Chapel Hill.

About a half dozen attendees, including a lone retiree, turned up to enjoy a spread of croissants, fresh fruit and coffee at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill.

Talecris CEO Lawrence Stern interpreted the light crowd as a good sign.

"That it's a small turnout, in my mind, is a good thing, because it shows there are no concerns out there," Stern said after the meeting.

Talecris, which makes medicines from blood plasma at its massive Clayton manufacturing plant, raised $950 million in an initial public offering last fall. The Research Triangle Park company elected two people, Paul N. Clark and Kenneth J. Martin, to its board this morning.

Stern said Talecris has begun initial site work on the expansion of its Clayton plant. In November, the company received a package of tax breaks and other financial aid worth nearly $20 million as part of the expansion, which will create 259 jobs over the next seven years.

The first stage will be a $280 million facility to separate proteins in blood plasma that are used to make medicine. That project will take several years to open, a process that will require approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Talecris owns one building in RTP and leases office and lab space in three others. The company also leases space on N.C. State's Centennial Campus and operates 69 plasma collection centers.

Stern said this morning that it's logical to assume that Talecris will eventually need additional office space as it continues to grow, but the company has no formal plans at the moment to add new space.

Talecris Biotherapeutics and one of its rivals are both being reprimanded by federal regulators, according to Bloomberg News.

The RTP-based Talecris, which also has operations in Clayton, overstated the benefits of its drug Prolastin in promotional brochures, according to a letter on the Food and Drug Administration's Web site.

The FDA also found that CLS, an Australian company, marketed its drug Zemaira by indicating that it worked better than studies have shown, Bloomberg reported.

Both drugs are used to treat emphysema.

The FDA ordered the companies to stop handing out the promotional material and to revise their marketing of the drugs.

A plasma center in Eagle Pass, Texas run by Talecris Biotherapeutics was featured in a Sunday New York Times article about the practice of locating the plasma centers along the Mexican border and in areas with high rates of poverty and drug abuse.
In the article, Bruce Nogales, who runs plasma collection for Talecris, says the same precautions are taken at the border as everywhere else the company collects plasma.
“I don’t understand the difference between having a center in El Paso and having a center in Columbus, Ohio,” Nogales told the paper. Nine of Talecris’s 71 collection centers, including four new ones, are on the border, the article notes. Talecris, which is based in Research Triangle Park, also operates a plasma center in Clayton.