J&J Will Move Biotech Unit to Larger Quarters

Indeed, much of the impetus for its biotech foray has come from its Ortho Biotech Products division. The division's growth has been so dramatic that it's moving its headquarters of 20 years from a 90,000-sf building in Raritan, NJ a couple of miles away to a new 127,000-sf building in this Somerset County township of 50,000. The move is expected to be completed by the middle of this year, according to an Ortho spokesman.

It's not exactly as though Bridgewater is stealing a corporate location from Raritan, a tiny, one-square-mile town of less than 10,000 people. The two Somerset County communities immediate adjoin each other, and in fact form a combined school district. And even though Ortho is moving out of Raritan, its facility, which provides almost one-third of Raritan's ratables, is expected to be occupied by other J&J operations.

Altogether, about 320 jobs are involved in the short-distance move, and Ortho is expected to grow its HQ staff to at least 400. Worldwide, Ortho's 1,500 employees generated a whopping $3.4 billion in sales last year, compared to $1.2 billion just five years ago.

The main catalyst for the dramatic growth has been Procrit, or Eprex as the drug is known in Europe, a treatment for the anemic condition usually suffered by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and AIDS patients using AZT. Other Ortho Biotech products include Leustatin, used to treat leukemia, and Doxil, which is used for ovarian cancer patients.

The division's new headquarters facility in Bridgewater was actually acquired late last year for an estimated $20 million, although further details of the sale, including the seller, have not been disclosed. Ortho's move to the facility was just announced late last week.