Pharmaceutical plant stands idle

The parking lot is empty, the phone lines are disconnected and a Connecticut building-supply company is seeking payment for doors installed several months ago.But the CEO of Pristine Pharma Corp. said production at the Massena pharmaceutical plant will ramp up later this summer after a financial audit of the company is complete.New Jersey-based Pristine first announced its plans to open a production facility in Massena in November. The company's CEO, Venkat E. Kakani, originally said the plant on County Route 42 would start production with 25 employees by as early as late March and could employ 100 by the summer of 2012.Crews worked through the winter to convert the former Michele Audio building into a pharmaceutical plant that would produce liquid medicine. By early March, Pristine hired its first seven employees here — two consultants, a chemist, a mechanical engineer, an operations staffer and two packaging employees — and produced a batch of DeWitt's Worm Syrup to be shipped to Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica, Mr. Kakani said.