WuXi PharmaTech helps boost Philadelphia's biotech sector

When WuXi PharmaTech bought AppTec Laboratory Services Inc in Philadelphia for $151 million in 2008, it became one of the biggest foreign investors in a city where biotech was a hot sector.

Since the acquisition, WuXi AppTec, as the company is now known, has become one of the biggest job creators with a staff of approximately 400. This will increase to 600 in a few years.

The company has three buildings in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, a former naval shipyard for almost 200 years, and has additional offices in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Atlanta.