ABINGDON, Va. – Two years ago, the owner of a local pharmaceutical research and development company changed the way he wanted to run his business. Rather than ship his drugs outside the region for manufacture, Innovative Technologies President Keith Latham decided to expand his business so he could keep that work – and the hundreds of jobs it might create – right here.
“I just couldn’t do that anymore,” Latham said during an April 2009 Bristol Herald Courier interview about his decision to stop outsourcing. “The economic recovery starts here.”
On Friday, Latham took the first step toward that goal when he announced his company’s purchase of the old Abingdon Cold Storage facility at Interstate 81’s Exit 22.
Latham wants to start manufacturing his company’s drugs at the new facility in May. He also wants to hire 18 new employees by the end of the year, roughly quadrupling the size of his staff in about 12 months.
If this initial expansion works out, Latham said, the company will only continue to grow as the 35 drugs in its development pipeline get ready to go through clinical trials.
“This event is kind of a line in the sand,” Latham said when his Friday ground-breaking ceremony came to an end. “We’re ready to do this. We can now proceed.”
Latham opened Innovative Technologies in 1996. He currently employs six people at the company’s main office at the Bristol-Washington County Industrial Park, which is just outside the Bristol, Va., city limits on Industrial Boulevard.
The company has 35 drugs in its development pipeline, Latham said, including the four it plans to manufacture at its new Exit 22 facility.
The drugs include: Parkinol, which could help people with Parkinson’s disease; Azolol, a drug for Alzheimer’s disease; the company’s thyroid drug Thyromax; and Cardiosafe, which could keep heart attack sufferers from developing reperfusion injuries, which occur as blood flow is restored to organs and tissues.
“Those are just the first of our 35 new drugs through the pipeline,” Latham said, again hinting at plans to further expand Innovative Technologies as time goes on.
Lathamdeclined Friday to offer too much detail about his expansion plans, but hinted they involve buying another industrial building near his new facility. He also wants to build a small grass air strip next to the Exit 22 facility so he can fly his small private plane back and forth to work.
“All of us will benefit from all of the things that he will be doing,” said Tom Taylor, who represents the Glade Spring area on the Washington County Board of Supervisors and who spoke at the end of Friday’s ground-breaking ceremony.
At the ceremony, Latham received a $60,000 grant from the Washington County Industrial Development Authority and a $60,000 grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Revitalization Commission.
“We congratulate Washington County on a great win for the Southwest Virginia region,” Tobacco Commission Chairman Charles Hawkins said in a statement announcing its grant. “We are pleased that the Tobacco Commission could offer assistance and ensure that Innovative Technologies will stay and thrive in Washington County.”
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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