Final State Budget Will Include $200 Million For A State-Of-The-Art Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Center

ALBANY- State Senator Catharine Young (R,C,I- 57th District) is ecstatic that she has delivered on her promise that the $200 million in state funding proposed by Governor Cuomo for Athenex, a pharmaceutical manufacturing center that will create 900 jobs in Chautauqua County, is included in the final state budget.

“It has been somewhat of a battle during the budget negotiations. The Assembly Majority tried to play games and actually removed the project from the Assembly’s one-house budget resolution, while the Senate championed it in our resolution. Assemblyman Goodell and I fought back, and the Senate worked closely with Governor Cuomo to ensure the $200 million would be passed,” said Senator Young.

“I’ve said it before and I will say it again – this project is a game-changer for our region. It brings back good-paying jobs, technology and research, and the cancer treatment drugs the plant eventually will produce will save countless lives,” she said. 

In February, Senator Young joined Governor Cuomo and other officials to announce that an agreement had been reached between SUNY Polytechnic Institute and Athenex to build and staff a 300,000 square foot pharmacy oncology manufacturing facility in Dunkirk area. However, the funding for the project still needed to be finalized during budget process.

“The state’s $200 million investment in Dunkirk will spur action and progress. Now that the funding has formally been secured, work can begin and ground can be broken. Having an advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing center and a high-tech research facility will put our community at the forefront of a major sector of the 21st-century economy,” Senator Young said.

Athenex is a specialty pharmaceutical company that creates some of the leading medications in the world-wide battle against cancer. The company has agreed to invest at least $1.5 billion in the Dunkirk plant to manufacture high-potency oncology drugs, as well as pharmaceutical products that appear on the FDA’s drug shortage list.

“I thank the governor for putting his trust in our community, and applaud all our local officials for their support in achieving this significant investment. Today we are taking another important step to ensure that our community remains a place where people can grow and prosper,” said Senator Young.

Both Senator Young and Assemblyman Goodell have vowed that the $200 million allocation that was in the executive budget proposal would be passed in the final budget, and Governor Cuomo has pledged that he would not sign the budget unless it was included..