Loan to help Cephalon add 365 jobs

A $2.1 million loan from a Utah agency will help biopharmaceutical company Cephalon Inc. add 365 full-time jobs at its Salt Lake operations over the next five years.

The Utah Board of Business and Economic Development on Friday approved Industrial Assistance Fund incentives, including the one for Pennsylvania-based Cephalon.

The funds will help Cephalon enlarge its offices and manufacturing facilities at the International Center. In Salt Lake, the company develops and manufactures a drug line known as Actiq to treat pain in cancer patients. Elsewhere, the company makes drugs to help treat and manage neurological and sleep disorders, as well as cancer and pain.

The expansion will occur in two phases, and the new jobs will have an average salary of $63,000. The company now has 135 workers in Salt Lake and 1,600 elsewhere.

Cephalon entered Utah in October 2002 by purchasing and merging with Anesta Corp., which developed and commercialized products to help people deal with cancer pain. Anesta was a spin-off company created to commercialize a drug-delivery technology developed at the University of Utah through the Utah Division of Business and Economic Development's Centers of Excellence program.

The board also approved a $250,000 loan for a company to open a manufacturing plant in rural Utah to serve the western United States It will employ 125 people. The company, whose name was not made public, manufactures farm gates, corral panels, feeders, tanks and other livestock management equipment.