Pocono News Section

400 Jobs Staying In Northumberland County

400 Jobs Staying In Northumberland County - Friday, January 4, 2008 at 5:34PM EST

Reported by: Jeff Chirico
Friday, Jan 4, 2008 @05:34pm EST
RIVERSIDE, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY –Hundreds of jobs will stay in Northumberland County. PRWT Services, of Philadelphia purchased the former Merck & Co. pharmaceutical ingredients plant in Riverside. The Philadelphia-based company says it will keep all four hundred employees at the newly named Cherokee Pharmaceuticals plant.

Merck announced two years ago it was looking to sell the company. That concerned workers like Doug Funk. "It was shocking. Most people weren't sure what the future held for us."

At a news conference Friday, PRWT Services, an African-American owned business, announced the purchase. Company officials would not release the price.

During the conference, Governor Ed Rendell vouched for the company. "They are a high class, first-rate organization. They do everything in a good, solid, business way. Chairman of PRWT Services, Willie Johnson, says “we look forward to partnering with this community, the officials as a good corporate citizen." The promise to be a good corporate citizen is good news to Riverside mayor Dale Erb, who worried about losing a major employer. "Our concern is a lot of jobs would be lost and a lot of our tax base."

PRWT Services provides many services for outsourced government operations. The purchase of the Cherokee plant marks the 20- year- old company's first try in pharmaceuticals. Executive Vice President for Business Development, Skip Lee says "we have assembled a team who is highly qualified to run this business as vetted by Merck in this due diligence process. So we are confident."

PRWT also plans to invest $15 million to build a new life sciences campus. Lee says he expects the company to break ground this year. Cherokee Pharmaceuticals has become the first minority-owned business in the country to own a pharmaceutical company.