SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—Prolong Pharmaceuticals LLC, a biopharmaceutical company headed by NJ-trained scientists, is doubling down on its commitment to New Jersey, with the expansion of its South Plainfield manufacturing facility and the addition of new executive and administrative offices at the location. 

Company founder Abraham Abuchowski, Ph.D., will be honored next week by BioNJ, the industry trade association he also founded, for his dedication to the biopharmaceutical industry.

A new long term lease on the space adjoining its current facility is adding 24,000 square feet to the existing 24,000 square feet. In addition, the company this month secured 12,000 square feet of new executive and administrative space at One Cragwood Road, South Plainfield, which will serve as its new headquarters.

Prolong, which is developing products to treat several debilitating diseases, has been in the South Plainfield manufacturing facility has been used by Prolong since early 2010, according to Glen Kazo, Prolong president.

Kazo tells GlobeSt.com exclusively that when he and Abuchowski, his college professor and mentor, formed Prolong in 2009, they decided to keep the new startup in the Garden State.

“We're in the same business park—me four companies later, and Abe a few in between—and decided to reconvene when we established Prolong in its current form to take advantage of its access to the pharmaceutical industry,” says Kazo. “We really have come, if not full circle, maybe back to our roots in some ways by building out and expanding in South Plainfield.”

Listen to our exclusive audio interview with Glenn Kazo in the player below.

Kazo, Abuchowski, and other company principals came out of the same academic science environment at Rutgers University.

“New Jersey obviously had the largest talent pool available, and still does, for people experienced in the pharmaceutical industry,” says Kazo.

Part of that commitment to keeping scientific research in New Jersey led Abuchowski to form BioNJ, the state's biopharmaceutical trade association, which will honor Abuchowski next week with its Dr. Sol J. Barer Award for Vision, Innovation, and Leadership.

“As our clinical plans have advanced, we are executing our facilities plan as well,” says Kazo. “We secured our initial plant with a long term lease in 2011, and brought in an industry veteran as head of manufacturing and facilities, Tom Flachmeyer. This expansion and the establishment of our new separate corporate offices is on pace with our strategic schedule.”

“These moves mark the beginning of an exciting new phase for Prolong,” says Abuchowski. “Along with this doubling of our manufacturing and administrative space, we expect our work force to grow by approximately 30 percent during 2015.”

Abuchowski says construction of the new manufacturing facility should be completed by the second quarter of 2015. “We are moving with this construction with our full efforts, and this will be one of the most unique and advanced large scale biological product manufacturing facilities in the world.”