Bayer to build testing facility

Project would focus on new hemophilia drug

BERKELEY — Bayer HealthCare is spending $ 100 million over the next two years to build a producttesting facility here for a new hemophilia drug, a project that will create 325,000 hours of construction work, officials said in a news conference Wednesday.

Bayer’s Berkeley campus, which spans three city blocks on 7th Street between Dwight Way and Grayson Street, manufactures a drug for people with hemophilia A called Kogenate. It is expecting FDA approval late this year or early next year on a second hemophilia drug called Kovaltry to be produced at the same site.

Kogenate is the company’s second- biggest drug, with $ 1.2 billion in sales last year. Xarelto, a blood thinner, had $ 1.86 billion in sales in 2014.

Joerg Heidrich, Bayer Berkeley site head, said the new building will be about 80,000 square feet on three stories. He said it costs so much because “it is a facility that complies with the regulations on human drug testing.”

Heidrich said the company in 2009 invested $ 100 million on a lab, also on the Berkeley site, to produce Kovaltry.

He said Bayer has been producing hemophilia drugs in Berkeley for 25 years. Last year, the Berkeley campus paid $ 71.3 million in local, state and federal taxes.

The new building will be used to quality test both drugs during the manufacturing process, a spokeswoman said.

Hemophilia A is a genetic disorder that prevents blood from clotting. According to the National Hemophilia Association website, the disorder affects about 20,000 people in the U. S. People with the disorder often bleed longer and can bleed internally or externally from cuts. Bayer’s current hemophilia drug is shipped to 80 countries from Berkeley.

Bayer HealthCare is the largest private employer in Berkeley, with 1,500 employees. Aside from the construction jobs to build the new facility, the company will not be adding permanent jobs.

Mayor Tom Bates said Wednesday at a groundbreaking event that Berkeley is “just so lucky to have Bayer.”

“When they came to us and said, ‘ We want to build a $ 100 million building on our property,’ we said, ‘ Great,’ ” Bates said. “We will have union labor and, hopefully, we will see this campus grow and create more of this wonderful product.”