A French pharmaceutical company that makes drug ingredients from corn, potatoes, wheat and peas, as well as producing plant-based materials for the cosmetic and food industries, has selected Lower Gwynedd Township as the site for its newest headquarters and innovation center, according to Pennsylvania Business Report.
Roquette, an innovator and manufacturer of naturally-derived excipients with plant-based ingredients, has put forth $8.7 million of a $25-million project to construct a 23,000-square-foot research and development lab in the Spring House Innovation Park off Norristown Road, which will bring about 30 new jobs to the area next summer, per the report.
Paul Smaltz, Roquette vice president of pharmaceutical solutions, told Pennsylvania Business Report that the new regional headquarters will allow Roquette to collaborate more efficiently with its business partners and develop solutions for future nutrition and health challenges.
It will house an Applied Sciences facility, which will research oral dosage forms, drug delivery systems, and more, according to a news release. There will also be a Customer Technical Services laboratory and an auditorium for hosting symposiums and customer training.
According to the release, the new headquarters will “advance the research of drug delivery systems for oral prescription drugs and nutraceutical active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), while improving speed to market. “
Roquette received a $150,000 Pennsylvania First grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which also urged Roquette to apply for the Research and Development Tax Credit Assignment Program, per the report.
According to its website, Roquette specializes in biopharma, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, cosmetics, food and nutrition, animal nutrition, and NUTRALYS brand plant proteins.
Roquette, whose U.S. headquarters is in Iowa, was founded in 1933 and operates in more than 100 countries, employing 8,360 people worldwide, according to Philadelphia Business Journal.
According to the Pottstown Mercury, Spring House Innovation Park, owned by Horsham-based life sciences developer MRA Group and real estate developer Beacon Capital Partners, comprises 14 buildings totaling 600,000 square feet of laboratories, office space and research and development facilities on 133 acres.
MRA Group acquired the former Rohm and Haas property in 2017, which is now a multi-tenant life sciences campus, per the Mercury.
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