COVID-19 boost for LI makers of drugs, vitamins

COVID-19 boost for LI makers of drugs, vitamins 1

‘Increasingly important’ growth industry for region

More than a half-dozen pharmaceutical businesses have announced expansion projects since the coronavirus struck in early 2020, Newsday’s James T. Madore reports.

Some are adding office, factory and warehouse space, while others are adding employees to make new products.

Industry employment increased by 540 jobs, or 5%, between early 2019 and early 2021. Nearly 11,500 people were employed at drug, vitamin and nutritional supplement companies in the January-March quarter. That represents 17.5% of all factory jobs in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to the most recent state Department of Labor data.

“This is a growth industry that is increasingly important to the region’s economy,” said John A. Rizzo, chief economist for the Long Island Association business group and a Stony Brook University professor.

Besides stepped-up hiring, many pharma and vitamin companies reported increased sales last year compared with 2019 as consumers sought ways to stay healthy as the coronavirus ravaged the country. Together, the nearly 160 firms had sales of $4.8 billion in 2020, according to a data analysis for Newsday by the Workforce Development Institute in Albany.

Rizzo said, “You’d like to see even more growth, and for Long Island to have a bigger share of the pie.” That will require more direct flights at Long Island MacArthur Airport, and tax concessions from government to attract some of the larger pharmaceutical corporations in New Jersey to have a footprint here, he said.

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Also challenges: the Island’s high cost of doing business and a shortage of factory and warehouse space, according to a 2019 report about pharma on Long Island by WDI and the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.

The chart below shows the percentages of Long Islanders who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and those who have been fully vaccinated.

Search a map of vaccination rates, new cases and view charts showing the latest local trends in testing, vaccinations, hospitalizations, deaths and more.

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