Danville Company Eyes Future Expansion

The president of Engineered BioPharmaceuticals Inc. anticipates starting the company’s expansion to the Cyber Park in 2013, with jobs there paying salaries from about $30,000 to $80,000 a year.

The startup is developing dry-powder pharmaceuticals for vaccines and has been located at the Dan River Business Development Center — a business incubator — since February.

Carl Sahi, president of Engineered BioPharmaceuticals, said it will eventually create about 100 jobs after moving to the Cyber Park, but he’s not sure when. The company has 11 employees — technicians and engineers — and is committed to hire six more technicians by 2013 as a condition of a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Sahi said.

About half of the employees are from the Danville area, including technicians who are graduates of Danville Community College, Sahi said.

“That’s the skill level we’re looking for,” Sahi said.

Engineered BioPharmaceuticals has been in talks with about a dozen pharmaceutical companies and has requests from three to begin making products for evaluation, Sahi said. The dry powders, as opposed toprotein-based liquid pharmaceuticals, aim to protect molecules in vaccines from degradation, Sahi said.

“We’re still in the process of perfecting the manufacturing process,” Sahi said.

Annual salaries for engineers will be about $60,000 to $80,000 while technicians’ pay will range from about$30,000 to $50,000 a year, Sahi said.

The startup also has a $3 million grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission. Sahi said expansion to the Cyber to cost up to $20 million. The company is getting money from the grants as it incurs costs, he said.

“This is pretty cool for Danville,” said Jeremy Stratton, Danville’s director of economic development. “This will open the door for other pharmaceutical companies in Danville.”