GTC tests drugs, chemicals.

Jefferson County Company Brings High-Paying Jobs to Central Arkansas

A relatively small Jefferson County company is in the forefront of biotechnology research, both in the United States and internationally.

GTC Redfield Laboratories, a division of Genzyme Transgenics Corp. of Framingham, Mass., does safety evaluations of new pharmaceutical drugs and chemicals for companies. The testing is done to determine if the drugs can pass regulatory standards of the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as similar agencies in Europe and Japan.

Genzyme Transgenics purchased a building and 40 acres in Redfield in 1991 from the state. In May, it opened a $1 million, state-of-the-art, 11,000-SF research facility with complete environmental controls and a high-tech heat recovery system. GTC now has 67,000 SF of space in Redfield.

The main building is three floors with four-foot crawl spaces between each floor. That allows maintenance crews to repair equipment without exposure to test systems.

Ron McCarty, director of operations at GTC Redfield, couldn't discuss the drugs GTC researches or the companies manufacturing those drugs. GTC tests everything from Alzheimer's disease treatments to cancer drugs to drugs to treat psoriasis, McCarty says.

"These are all new compounds of cancer agents that are coming out," McCarty says of some of the drugs. "It is all highly competitive, so we can't talk about them.

"The testing is basically a safety evaluation, making sure the drug is safe for you and I to deal with."

GTC Redfield's research is done on animals, but the firm exceeds standards for animal care, McCarty says.

Genzyme Transgenics selected Arkansas seven years ago because it gave the company a chance to expand to other markets in the southwest and western United States, McCarty says.

"Arkansas was proactive in wanting to develop the biotech corridor down here," McCarty says. "The existing facility, which is about 15 years old, was built to be a toxicology facility. It was a fairly good deal for us to purchase it, and there was some additional support from [what is now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.]

"And every other facility we have is basically located on the East Coast."

$100,000 Salaries

GTC offers mostly high-paying jobs to its 60 employees. McCarty says the salaries range from about $8 an hour to more than $100,000 a year. The division has grown dramatically since 1994, when McCarty transferred to Redfield. There were only 16 employees in 1994.

McCarty and others at GTC Redfield also work to help recruit other biotechnology companies to the Biotech Corridor between Pine Bluff and Little Rock.

Alan Hoberman, president of GTC Redfield and a sister company, Argus Research Laboratories of Horsham, Pa., also is active in recruiting biotechnology companies to the area, McCarty says. Hoberman, a graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, is a member of the board of the Arkansas Biotech Association.

One benefit to GTC Redfield if other biotechnology firms locate in Arkansas, McCarty says, is that they would need to have their chemicals and drugs tested and could become clients of GTC Redfield.

Genzyme Transgenics' main product, developed on the East Coast, is antithrombin III, a plasma protein that helps to regulate blood clotting. In 1996, it was successfully tested in the United Kingdom and at Emory University in Atlanta on almost 50 patients. Researchers hope that testing, which continues this year, will prove that AT III can make coronary artery bypass grafting safer by reducing blood loss and eliminating the need for blood transfusions during surgery.

AT III is the first transgenic drug ever tested in clinical studies.

Transgenic proteins are produced by inserting human DNA into animals' cells so that the targeted protein, or drug, is secreted in the milk of female offspring.