News that OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. is coming to Ardsley was greeted by regional biotech executives this week with the enthusiasm of playoff-hungry baseball pros whose team's owner just acquired a hot slugger.
The leading drug company on Long Island, OSI will join a lineup of biotechs in the Lower Hudson Valley and strengthen the region's reputation as a hub for innovation in the industry, the executives said. At stake are well-paying jobs - the state average was more than $68,000 in 2006, an industry report said - in a field that's seen as critical to the new economy.
The industry provided more than 17,000 jobs directly and in related fields in Westchester and Rockland counties in 2006, according to the report this year by Archstone Consulting LLC.
The two counties host 61 companies, including publicly-traded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. at The Landmark at Eastview, and Acorda Therapeutics Inc. in Hawthorne.
"There is a lot of synergy, but you need a critical mass," said Dr. Ron Cohen, chief executive officer at Acorda and the former chairman of the New York Biotechnology Association.
"I think that with OSI coming here, to me it feels like the missing piece," he said. "Now you really have an opportunity to create a buzz around successful biotechnology anchor tenants, if you will. That's what you really need to get the level of interest from other biotech CEOs, from would-be entrepreneurs, from venture capitalists who can now start thinking, 'Hey, I ought to consider Westchester and maybe I won't go to New Jersey, maybe I won't go to Pennsylvania.' "
With a market cap of $1.64 billion, OSI has what many startups dream of - profits and a product with a proven track record.
The company had operating income last year of $137.3 million on sales of $379.4 million. Most of the revenue came from Tarceva, a treatment for lung and pancreatic cancer that produced worldwide sales of $1.1 billion last year for OSI and its partners.
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