business backgrounder | industry
Growing Out of Sight
Spokane drug manufacturer Jubilant HollisterStier
finds success making sterile injectables for other companies.
Jason Hagey
A move into the contract drug manufacturing business has transformed the Spokane allergy
therapy manufacturer formerly known as Hollister-Stier Laboratories. Nearly five years after it
was acquired by an India-based company, Jubilant HollisterStier is thriving.
Spokane. Montreal. India.
A three-faced clock on a book shelf in the CEO’s
office at Jubilant HollisterStier is one indication this is
not your average company. It’s likely one of only a few
clocks in the world showing the time in these particular
locations. (Any others, if they exist, are presumably
located in Jubilant’s offices in Montreal and India.)
It is fitting, however, for a company that is one of only
a few in the world that does what it does: Manufacture
sterile, injectable allergy
extracts, and contract with
at a glance
major pharmaceutical
companies to manufacture
other sterile injectables — everything from flu vaccines
to cancer agents.
It’s also a vivid illustration of the global reach of a
company that operated in relative obscurity for decades
from its headquarters on a former lumber yard north of
downtown Spokane.
Since being acquired in 2007 by India-based Jubilant
Life Sciences, Ltd., the company — which also has operations in Canada and Maryland — has undergone a name
change from Hollister-Stier Laboratories to Jubilant
HollisterStier.
And it’s seen impressive growth, primarily in its contract pharmaceutical business. Although not immune from
The company was founded
in 1921 by two allergists,
Drs. Hollister and Stier.
It grew over the years,
making allergy extracts for people
suffering from severe pollen,
dust, bee sting and other allergic
reactions. It was acquired by
Cutter Laboratories, Inc. of
Berkeley, Calif. in 1956. In 1974,
the German pharmaceutical giant
Bayer AG acquired Cutter.
The lab’s management group,
with backing from a capital
investment group, bought the
company from Bayer in 1999 and
began manufacturing additional
kinds of injectable medicine
under contract with major
pharmaceutical companies.
Jubilant HollisterStier’s facility in Spokane manufactures allergy extracts and contracts with major
pharmaceutical companies to produce other injectable medicines.
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