Durham Council to weigh incentive to keep drug company

  • 2014-08-07
An item on City Council’s work agenda today could have long-lasting consequences for Durham.

An incentive of $924,676 is being asked for by Argos Therapeutics. The company currently has its home office in northern Durham and, if given the proposed incentive, will stay and expand its footprint here.

A memo from Kevin Dick, Durham’s economic development director, informed council that the pharmaceutical company is being wooed by locations in Quebec, Florida and five other North Carolina counties. Last week, $925,000 was approved by Durham County commissioners. Argos has also requested money from the North Carolina commerce department.

The company currently has two products (one to treat a type of kidney cancer and another to treat HIV) undergoing trials. A company presentation states a belief that this approach to drug therapy, which is personalized for individual patients, will give Argos an advantage over big-named competitors such as Pfizer, Merck and Novartis.

Council may vote as early as their regular meeting on August 18. Other information they will weigh from Dick’s memo include Argos’ assertion that it will be making a capital investment of $41 million and will, by 2018, add 236 new jobs averaging $90,725 each. An expansion such as the one Argos is undertaking would mean an increase in a sales for a number of area businesses, including providers of printing services.