A drug manufacturer's plans for expansion in Albuquerque announced earlier in March will include access to state incentives that will help it add more than 200 employees.
New Mexico officials and leadership from Curia on March 24 announced the company stands to receive up to $5 million from the state's Local Economic Development Act job-creation fund, according to a news release from the New Mexico Economic Development Department. Curia, which is headquartered in Albany, New York, and formerly known as AMRI, could also receive state assistance through New Mexico's Job Training Incentive Program.
All told, the incentives will help the company pay an average salary of over $50,000 among up to 274 employees, according to the news release.
Albuquerque Business First reported on March 10 that Curia's plans include a 65,000-square-foot expansion at its Alexander Boulevard facility.
The expansion is part of an effort to support U.S. production of medicines that can be injected. A cooperative agreement between Curia and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the U.S. Army Contracting Command includes funding for a "high-speed fill-finish vial line," according to a news release from Curia.
Sterile fill-finish essentially means sterilizing the drug product, container and closure before they are brought together.
Curia is also adding an isolated flexible filling line for vials, syringes and cartridges at its Balloon Park Road facility.
The city of Albuquerque has tentatively pledged up to $500,000 to the project, subject to final approval by the Albuquerque City Council.
Curia is expected to invest more than $100 million into the property and the project is estimated to have a potential economic impact of over $1 billion in the next decade, enabled in part by this expansion.
Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance, the area’s nonprofit, private-sector economic development organization, provided technical assistance for Curia’s expansion.
As of March, the company reportedly employed about 400 people in Albuquerque where it supports the supply of vaccines and treatments for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other types of disease.
In all, the company now has 3,700 employees across Asia, Europe and the U.S., according to the release.
Curia announced an agreement with AstraZeneca in 2020 to support the production of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate with plans to add about 150 employees for vaccine production, vice president and general manager Jonathan Shoemaker previously told Business First.
However, the AstraZeneca vaccine faced early setbacks during trials and has not received approval for use in the U.S. by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
