Florence Pharma Firm Goes 0 to 160 in Decade
Published Apr 17, 2008
Equipment in IRIX’s laboratories includes a liquid chromatography machine.
What a difference a decade makes. IRIX Pharmaceuticals Inc. hired its first employees in 1997.
By the time the company observed its 10th birthday in 2007, it had 160 employees at its headquarters in Florence and a manufacturing operation in Greenville, S.C.
“We opened a corporate office here in Florence and, in the beginning, actually rented lab space from Francis Marion University. That was our incubator,” says Miriam Swiler, IRIX vice president of human resources and public relations. Two former Roche Carolina executives, J. Guy Steenrod and Peter Kalaritis, founded IRIX and serve as chief executive officer and chief operating officer, respectively.
In 1998, the company bought its headquarters building at 101 Technology Place. “Since that time, you might say, we haven’t put the hammer down, because we’ve been expanding this facility since that time to accommodate our growth,” Swiler says. The Florence operation includes corporate offices, laboratories and a pilot plant capable of manufacturing enough ingredients for a pharmaceutical clinical trial.
The Greenville operation, which began in 2002, includes a pilot plant and facilities for larger-batch manufacturing.
In 2006, IRIX worked on 44 active pharmaceutical ingredients for large and small pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology ventures and even “virtual” companies. “There may be an office in Southern California with six or seven people sitting around computers, but we’re doing the lab work here,” Swiler says.
Between 30 and 35 percent of IRIX’s employees are scientists with doctoral degrees. “People ask, ‘How in the world do you get that many Ph.D.s to come to Florence?’ Well,” Swiler says, “it’s easy.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Ian Curcio
Current Weather Conditions In Florence, SC (29502)
Cloudy, and 63 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
