San Jose-based CPC Scientific Inc. looked at locations in Texas, Arizona and South Carolina before deciding to build out its domestic manufacturing in Rocklin.
The company makes clinical-grade peptides for the pharmaceutical industry at a plant in China, and it wants to onshore some manufacturing.
“We looked all over, but in the end, we wanted to keep it close,” said David Godkin, vice president of business operations with CPC, in a phone interview.
“It’s a nice town, it’s got great schools and it's more affordable than San Jose,” Godkin said, adding that Rocklin is close enough to the Bay Area to make visits convenient.
The company bought a 41,000-square-foot office building at 3880 Atherton Road, and it will begin manufacturing there at the end of next year.
The Rocklin site will produce synthetic peptides for the fast-growing therapeutics and diagnostics market.
The company, which has 400 employees, anticipates having 50 employees at the Rocklin facility once it ramps up production, he said.
The company is private, and it doesn’t disclose revenue, but he said CPC is growing with demand for its products, which are made in International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, certified facilities.
Peptide-based therapeutics have been the fastest-growing sector among all the chemical-synthesized new chemical entities for new drug development in recent years, CPC said.
The Rocklin location will help the company diversify its supply chain. The company has an existing manufacturing plant in Hangzhou, China, which is just outside Shanghai.
The company had initially looked for a location in Davis to be close to the University of California Davis, but the commercial building market in Davis is constrained with little vacancy.
The company is excited to be in the Sacramento market, where it will have access to graduates from UC Davis and California State University Sacramento, said Chris Gothard, marketing director with CPC.
CPC was represented in the Rocklin building deal by Rico Cheung, with the Kidder Mathews brokerage in the Bay Area and Sacramento Kidder Mathews brokers Jim Gray and Nahz Anvary. They all specialize in life sciences brokerage. The building owner was represented by Chris Lemmon, regional managing director for brokerage Newmark’s Sacramento and Roseville offices.
“The science may be complicated, but it’s easy to understand how this life-science leader can help build this industry cluster in the region and attract more companies and high paying jobs,” said Rocklin Mayor Bill Halldin, in a news release. “We have enjoyed getting to know the CPC Scientific leadership as they finalized their choice of Rocklin and look forward to their continued success in biotechnology and life-sciences."
In an interview with the Business Journal, Halldin said Rocklin has been working with the company since February to ensure the new location can get permits as quickly as possible.
"The region has talked for years about attracting more companies in the life-sciences industry," Halldin said. He anticipates synergies with other local university and medical companies in the region.
Gray said Halldin was on the phone with the company within days of considering the Rocklin building to invite them to visit the city.
Peptide therapeutics have been developed over a century to treat diseases including diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, HIV infection and others.
CPC was founded in 2001. On its website, the company says it can provide products from the milligram to multi-kilogram for research-grade peptides with purity up to 99%.
