Cephalon expansion done

Tuesday's ceremonies marking the completion of a $100 million expansion of its facilities west of Salt Lake City International Airport gave Cephalon Inc. a chance to look both backward and forward.

The Pennsylvania-based biopharmaceutical company acquired Salt Lake-based Anesta Corp. in 2000, and sales of Anesta's Actiq drug for treating "breakthrough" cancer pain ballooned, leading to growth of the company's Utah operations.

"It is more than an expansion of our company and our partnership with Salt Lake City and the state of Utah," said Dennis Coleman, vice president of research and development at the Salt Lake facility. "It is another milestone in the evolution from our roots at Anesta.

"Actiq, the product Cephalon turned into a $400 million success, led our path to the future. The promise of Fentora, the successor to Actiq, and our expanding manufacturing capacity are befitting a company quickly approaching entry into the Fortune 1,000."

The expansion is able to accommodate 500 workers and features not only manufacturing capabilities, but also the largest controlled-substances vault west of the Mississippi River.

While it will produce Actiq and eventually Fentora, the expansion's economic impact will be $3.7 billion and potentially 1,300 direct and indirect jobs over 20 years, said Frank Baldino Jr., chairman and chief executive officer.

Actiq is one of five products Cephalon markets domestically. It markets more than 20 internationally.

The company, founded in 1987, has about 3,000 employees in the United States and Europe, with offices, laboratories or manufacturing facilities in West Chester, Pa.; Salt Lake City; and suburban Minneapolis.

Actiq sprang from research at the University of Utah Medical Center in 1983, and its sales have resulted in more than $34 million in royalty payments to the U. About 470,000 prescriptions were written for Actiq in 2005, and sales of Actiq increased to more than $400 million in 2005. That's a far cry from the $13 million to $15 million in Actiq sales in 2000 and the expected $600 million expected this year.

"Actiq is just the beginning, and soon we'll launch a new important alternative for breakthrough cancer pain called Fentora," Baldino said. "Along with Actiq, Fentora will be manufactured right here in Utah and is the key element of the expansion of this facility and the investment we celebrate here today. In many ways, it fully illustrates how Utah has become a hub of our emerging global drug delivery business."

But while Baldino said Actiq's "tremendous level of success" would have been difficult to imagine in 2000, he commended the Utah work force.