Rochester Company Expands, Signaling Shot in the Arm for Medical Main Street

A pharmaceutical manufacturer's $8 million investment in the city of Rochester is being touted by county leaders as a coup for the growing Medical Main Street.

A laboratory expansion by JHP Pharmaceuticals will keep 300 jobs in the city and add 15 more — all scientists, according to a press release from Oakland County on Friday. JHP, with a headquarters in Parsippany, NJ, broke ground on the expansion in Rochester last week.

The company specializes in sterile injectable pharmaceuticals. Its Rochester production facility sits on more than 80 acres of land off Parkdale and includes a 171,000 square foot production building and warehouse. In Rochester, it is the top property taxpayer in the city, according to a recent financial report. 

JHP recently launched a generic drug division at its Rochester plant. "We have made investments over the past several years to expand capacity in our Rochester facility, to support growth in JHP labeled products and provide enhanced benefit to our expanding contract manufacturing customer base," said JHP President Stuart Hinchen in a statement. 

For Medical Main Street, which was formed in 2008 as an effort to grow the life science industry in southeast Michigan, the investment and expansion is a signal of success.

“The long-term plan for Medical Main Street is the growth of the medical and life science sectors and JHP is a vital part of that future,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said in a statement. 

Earlier this year, Elba Laboratories in Troy, a company that develops prescription and over-the-counter lotions, announced investment of $350,000, while retaining 20 jobs and creating another nine.  

“These are companies we are aggressively working to retain and attract to Oakland County,” Patterson said.

According to county data:

• Since 2008, Medical Main Street companies have generated investment of more than $220 million and created or retained more than 2,900 jobs.
• The county’s life science industry includes 100,000 health care and life science jobs – more than the number of jobs at the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinics combined.
• The county has more than 4,300 life science and medical facilities and is projected to add 45,000 health care and life science jobs in the next 10 years, according to a study conducted by the Anderson Economic Group.
• There are nearly 4,900 active clinical trials throughout Oakland County and the state – more than California, Florida, Texas or New Jersey.

Medical Main Street’s inaugural Inno-Vention conference is set for Oct. 4 at the Royal Park Hotel. Find out more about the initiative at www.MedicalMainStreet.org.