Roche Carolina

I heard there will be visitors coming next week to tour the site. Lots of clean up etc. going on but the visit is supposed to be hush hush. Already tentatively agreed on price (50 Million). The only decisions are how many and who to keep in each area (A total of about 80 will be kept). Roche will commit to some API supply to get the deal done.

 

If you compare how much product we get out the door today with what we got out five years ago, 80 is probably all we need, excluding the 20 in Quality. I'll bet they don't speak English as a first language. "Hush hush" my ass, nothing around here has ever been hush hush.

 

Maybe they'll call us the FLAGSHIP!!!!

 

Will the new site head get to be in Dancing with the Stars?

 

The negotiations are on hold. The challenge is around the number of employees to keep. Roche wants the buyer to keep most to avoid or reduce paying severance packages. Buyer wants between 25 and 50 to be cut loose by and paid by Roche.

 

Who is the buyer?

 

I was pulling up some articles on SCNEWS from 2012 and came across a piece entitled: Reinvesting in Roche, detailing Jami's introduction to the site and her vision on it's "second life." Take, for instance the following:

"Genentech, the creator of pharmaceuticals like cancer drug Avastin, was acquired by Roche in March 2009. Since her arrival in Florence, the site has added about a dozen others from Genentech, including Lesa Valentine as the site’s head of quality in June.

Though Genentech hires aren’t necessarily intentional, they are part of building the plant where it needs to be by elevating the site’s talent, which she hopes will create a pipeline."

Does anyone know how many of the dozen or so are still around? I know that Lesa left as soon as she could get out of there; likewise with many others that rode the gravy train from the Republic of California as well as Basel.

The article mentions that Jami was the first to manage the site without a technical background. We should have known what we were getting ourselves into when she stated that "elevating" the sites talent would "hopefully" just create a pipeline!

As others have posted, we make a PEG reagent. This is a "starting material for a starting material" in regulatory terms; and it is made in a very small scale at that. Capecitibine is off patent and available elsewhere, Orlistat is history, Oseltamivir is seasonal at best and we closed the multimillion dollar Highly Active Substance mini-plant that was built and produced next to nothing.

Oh well, I see that they are hiring and seeking to elevate site talent; the pipeline should be just beyond the next curve. So sad and frustrating for a site with such a successful first life.

 

About the only thing Jami elevated around here was the massive spend on consultants who in the end really couldn't find anything of significance. Oh, she also elevated the headcount despite decreasing volumes by bringing in prima donnas from the Left Coast, many of which left when they saw how "great" her leadership was. I guess that is why Roche decided to invest in Ireland for expanded API production.

 

Cannot officially say - The buyer is one of the larger CMOs that Roche is already familiar with from past business and who already has facilities in the Carolinas.

 

Sounds like DSM, facility in SC and a finished dosage form facility in NC.

 

DSM pharma including Greenville, NC plant is now known as Patheon

 

How right you are, similarly Roche Carolina is now known as Genentech.

 

Good guess - buy it cheap; cut people and support/infrastructure costs to get it to a "sustainable and profitable" base.

 

DSM also has a small plant in Kingstree, SC, about an hour south of Florence, SC. Also of note, the local IRIX pharma facility founded by former Roche Carolina execs in Florence, SC was just recently bought by Patheon. The new Patheon signs are already up!

 

Roche Ireland is a top notch facility with great people and senior leadership. They were great to work with and really partnered with RCI through thick and thin. Working with them with Orlistat Unmilled was a pleasure. This was a wonderful product for RCI in terms of staffing, yield, quality, and volume. A win-win back in the day.

 

Very interesting - the plot and the coincidences thicken.

 

Totally agree with your assessment of Roche Ireland. Orlistat was good for awhile, until the people taking it decided the incremental weight loss wasn't worth the trade off of tolerating "frequent unexpected expulsions of gas, sometimes accompanied by solid or oily matter". Swiss management was banking on the assumption that Americans are overweight and are so vain they will try anything to lose weight, especially women. As they say on John Boy and Billy, "How'd that work out".

 

Not entirely related, but it has come to light that Roche Carolina is being investigated for unfair "firing" practices. It shouldn't impact the sale, just an interesting note.

 

Seems the pricing is now a big issue. Roche wants $ 50 Million; Purchaser wants $ 25 to 50 Million in Investments and $ 50 to 75 Million in Confirmed Purchases for a total of $ 100 Million - over 3 to 5 years. Meaning the site has a net value of negative $ 50 Million. Just a few years ago it had some positive value but now with our great leadership we are worth negative money.

 

New Site Head is a Finance Guy. I think his mission is to reduce the costs and improve productivity so that the sale can go through.