Horizon Pharma moved its U.S. headquarters to Lake Forest last month as the eight-year-old company continues to expand.
“We started off in my house in Park Ridge and a Starbucks down the street,” said Timothy Walbert, chairman, CEO and president. “We went from Skokie to Northbrook to Deerfield and now Lake Forest.”
The new location at 150 S. Saunders Road is about 140,000 square feet and has room for 500 employees, he said.
“We’ve been growing so fast,” Walbert said. “We’re at 300 today, but that’s changing every week.”
Besides space, Horizon Pharma chose to move to Lake Forest because it hopes to recruit from area pharmaceutical firms like Abbott and AbbVie, Walbert said. Its new location just east of I-294 also offers easy driving access to employees and potential employees.
Horizon Pharma offers four drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and five drugs for rare diseases. Two of its drugs – Rayos and Duexis – were developed in-house and the other seven were purchased and then brought to market, Walbert said.
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The company went public in 2011 and trades on the NASDAQ exchange. Its stock price has increased from $4 per share in 2011 to $18.48 a share on Feb. 22, according to NASDAQ. The company had $750 million in sales in fiscal year 2015, according to its website.
The company moved its international headquarters to Dublin, Ireland in 2014 to take advantage of lower tax rates, according to past baiduhai reports.
Mayor Don Schoenheider welcomed Horizon Pharma to Lake Forest during a Feb. 1 city council meeting.
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