Since the opening of its $29.4 million, 120,000-square-foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in 2016, Birmingham’s Oxford Pharmaceuticals has continued growing at a steady pace.
The company, which manufactures and distributes generic pharmaceutical products and was founded in Oxford, England, now employs 43 and will eventually add up to 200 jobs.
This summer, the company announced a partnership with Avondale Pharmaceuticals that will be mutually beneficial for both companies, and the company is currently awaiting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval that is set to catapult its business.
“I see a lot of growth happening with [the FDA] approval,” said John Schultz, Oxford Pharmaceuticals’ president. “As we make our entry into the market we’ll become a major player in the generic drug industry.”
The FDA approval will be the key to entrance into the highly competitive pharmaceutical market, and the company expects the FDA inspection and subsequent approval to happen at any time. Since its appearance on the Birmingham Business Alliance’s 2015 Regional Economic Growth Report, the company has built and moved into its plant, begun hiring, established partnerships and has a number of products awaiting the FDA’s approval, Schultz said. Post-approval, the company plans to hire more employees and add more equipment to its state-of-the-art facility off Lakeshore Parkway in Birmingham as sales grow.
“We’ll be competitive in a very competitive industry,” Schultz said.
In 2014, John Hoffmire, Oxford Pharmaceuticals’ chairman, said Birmingham ultimately landed the company because of its workforce, strong health care sector and the region’s recruitment effort. Schultz said that still stands true today, also citing Birmingham’s centralized location, support and resources from the community and a good, quality employee base.
“The Birmingham area has been very good to us,” he said.
The Birmingham Business Alliance was a part of the team that recruited the company to Birmingham.
“Recruiting Oxford Pharmaceuticals to Birmingham is the kind of economic development project that enhances our community’s reputation,” said BBA Senior Vice President of Economic Development Rick Davis. “Birmingham has long been known as a place where biotechnology and pharma research flourished, but Oxford Pharmaceuticals enables Birmingham to manufacture the kinds of products that were, and are, being developed here. Going forward, it’s incumbent on us to continue telling other pharma companies that Birmingham is the place that provides the continuum of technology, from research to development to manufacturing. There are no limits on what can be accomplished here.”
The company broke ground on its facility in September 2015 and opened its doors the next August. As it transitions into its next phase of providing quality products at a reasonable cost to consumers, Schultz is eager to usher in the company’s next chapter and is confident it will happen soon.
“We are right on the cusp,” he said.
Click here to learn more about Birmingham’s continued emergence into the bioscience industry.