Japanese drugmaker Noven gets county aid to expand here

Miami’s pharmaceutical world is gearing up for an expansion of Japanese-owned Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc. as county commissioners last week approved a $709,420 incentive to grow Noven’s South Dade operations.

The company plans to add 24,500 square feet to its current operations in 118,600 square feet at 11960 SW 144th St. and increase employment by 10 persons to grow pharmaceutical manufacturing at the site.

Work is expected to start in the 2024-2025 fiscal year and cost $39.3 million to complete, county commissioners were told in information from the Beacon Council, which spearheaded the incentive program under the Target Jobs Incentive Fund. Noven would be paid from countywide general revenues from 2025-2026 through 2034-2034, based on meeting the construction and hiring goals.

Miami-Dade has been a hub for startup and development of pharmaceutical companies. Noven was started here in 1987 and went public in 1998. Japan-based Hisamatsu acquired the company in 2008.

The original niche for Noven was to develop transdermal drug delivery systems, referred to as patches. Hisamatsu is the world’s largest patch manufacturer.

Large quantities of pharmaceuticals manufactured in Miami-Dade flow through Miami International Airport, which became the first airport in the Western Hemisphere and only the second on the globe to be designated a pharmaceutical freight hub by the International Transport Association.

Shortly after gaining that designation, Miami International Airport in 2018 moved $5.57 billion in pharmaceutical products, up from $3.28 billion in 2014.

The Beacon Council told commissioners in a report that if Noven did not gain the incentive to expand here it might do so in Japan.

The addition of ten workers is not a major increase for Noven, which now lists more than 300 employees. The new employees would receive average annualized salaries of $80,000 and annual benefits of $29,000 apiece.