Washington Business Winter 2012 | Page 40

business backgrounder | industry Recognizing the untapped potential in contract pharmaceutical manufacturing, Bonanzino invested everything he had and, with backing from the investment firm Windward Capital Partners, purchased the company. “That contract business really transformed the business,” Bonanzino said. By 2007, Windward was looking to make a return on its investment and found a buyer in Jubilant. Now, Jubilant HollisterStier consists of two separate business units: Jubilant HollisterStier Contract Manufacturing & Services and HollisterStier Allergy. The contract manufacturing unit accounts for the majority of revenue and virtually all of the company’s growth. Jubilant HollisterStier: www.jublhs.com HollisterStier Allergy: www.hsallergy.com no margin of error Since the acquisition, Jubilant has continued to grow the contract pharmaceutical business, raising its profile within the industry and earning AWB’s Manufacturer of the Year award in 2010. But even if you’re a consumer of Jubilant HollisterStier’s products, chances are you’re not familiar with its name or logo. The name on the syringe that ends up in a doctor’s office generally belongs to Jubilant’s customer. Jubilant doesn’t identify its customers by name, but Morales said they include seven of the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies. Examples of its products include vaccines, cancer agents, and injectable medicine used to treat Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. To make allergy extracts, the company routinely collects The level of scrutiny over dust samples, tree blossoms, bees and other materials in order manufacturers of injectable to obtain extracts. In the 1960s and ‘70s, Girl Scouts and other pharmaceuticals is considernonprofits held “dust drives.” Going door to door collecting dust able — and for good reason. from vacuum cleaners paid about 50 cents per pound. If s o m e o n e t a ke s a n o ra l m e d i c i n e t h a t ’s c o n t a m i nated, the body has a natural defense mechanism: It can reject it. But when you inject a medicine directly into the b l o o d s t re a m , t h e b o d y i s defenseless. T h a t m e a n s e ve r y d a y at the company ’s Spokane manufacturing facility is treated as if it’s inspection day. The workflow is similar to any modern manufacturing facility, Morales said, except with hypersensitivity toward temperature control and keeping the product sterile. Empty vials go into a restricted status the moment they arrive and care is taken to prevent any contamination at every stop in the process. It takes six months of 40 association of washington business