PRISTINE PHARMA CORP.: Company could employ about 100

By BRIAN HAYDEN
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2010

MASSENA — A New Jersey pharmaceutical company is planning to locate its manufacturing operations here.

Pristine Pharma Corp. expects to open its production facility in the former Michele Audio complex on County Route 42. The Prospect Park, N.J.-based company will produce cough syrup, pain reliever and other liquid medicines under store brand names and its own label, NuMed. The plant may employ up to 100 workers, according to Pristine CEO Venkat E. Kakani.

Approximately 30 percent of those jobs would be for chemists, pharmacists and skilled engineers, Mr. Kakani said. The rest of the jobs would be in assembly, packaging, warehousing and distribution.

"We would like to move there and set up operations and provide employment for the local community," Mr. Kakani said.

Most of the hires will be local, while some of the skilled workers may be recruited from Syracuse or Buffalo or other cities with a high concentration of medical employees, Mr. Kakani said.

Consultants retained by Pristine are in Massena preparing for the building's conversion. The opening of the plant is pending approval of state incentives and a power allocation believed to be coming from the St. Lawrence River Valley Redevelopment Agency. The facility may open as soon as February, Mr. Kakani said.

Pristine previously had contracted out its work to other manufacturing facilities in New Jersey, Mr. Kakani said. Owning its own facility will allow the business to take off, he said.

"We like the building," Mr. Kakani said. "It can be quickly converted into a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility."

Mr. Kakani said many of the medicines produced are for Canadian store brands, which made the Massena location ideal. The close proximity to the St. Lawrence Seaway also will allow the company to ship its goods more easily to large markets in Russia and the Ukraine.

Some of its domestic products can be found under store-brand labels at Kinney Drugs, Price Chopper, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart, he said.

Pristine was founded in 2009 and became a subsidiary of the Michelex Corp. in July. Michelex once employed about 200 people in Massena between its audio division, where Pristine is moving, and its plastics division in Massena Industrial Park. Both of those plants have been phased out.

Michelex's retired CEO is Massena resident Thomas G. Gramuglia, who stepped down in May. Mr. Gramuglia's recommendation played a large role in Pristine coming to Massena, Mr. Kakani said. The company purchased the building from Mr. Gramuglia for $275,000 several weeks ago.

"I'm trying to do my part to bring back the jobs that I lost," Mr. Gramuglia said. "It's taken a lot of work on my part to convince them to make Massena their home."

Mr. Gramuglia emphasized the importance of the incentives needed for the plant to take off.

"We've gotten them up here, they're committed and they're going to bring a good number of jobs," he said.

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