Drug prompts $50M Roxane upgrade

Roxane Laboratories Inc. is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar upgrade at its west-side pharmaceutical manufacturing plant to make a new respiratory drug developed by its parent company. Up to 40 percent of the 500,000-square-foot Columbus complex could be used to make Spiriva, a daily treatment that has already been launched in Europe. Roxane's parent, Boehringer Ingelheim Corp., a privately held German business, developed the drug and is a partner with New York-based Pfizer Inc. in co-promoting the therapy worldwide. Boehringer Ingelheim said last September that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee had recommended approval of the treatment for respiratory ailments, such as bronchitis and emphysema. The company is awaiting a final decision on the drug. If Spiriva gets the green light from federal regulators, Roxane would be Boehringer's U.S. launch site for the drug. The plant also would be used to back up worldwide distribution of Spiriva that is also being manufactured in Germany. Robert Fromuth, Roxane's president, said the company needs to hire 100 workers, including technicians, product engineers and packaging employees. "Boehringer has approved $50 million in capital investment for this plant," Fromuth said. "They've made a commitment to Columbus and so the ball is in our court," he said. Promising trial results According to the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease International Association, which provides information about the disease, 31 percent of patients taking Spiriva in clinical trials saw an improvement in breathing, compared with 18 percent who used Boehringer's Atrovent, an inhaled drug. The association also reports Spiriva proved superior to GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Serevent, a drug normally taken for asthma but also used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.