Innovation & Job News

Essen Instruments expands into research, plans to hire 40

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

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Biotechnology, Investment, Medical Research, Research

Ann Arbor

It would have been easy for Ann Arbor-based Essen Instruments to skip town. Many of its customers are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area. And there�s more venture capital there that could help the promising start-up grow.

"There were a lot of things that were pulling us toward California," says Brad Naegle, a spokesman for Essen Instruments.

The 10-year-old firm decided to stick to its roots and expand in Michigan while taking advantage of a $490,940 tax credit over seven years from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. That will allow the life sciences company to invest $3 million in Ann Arbor while creating 43 new jobs over five years.

Essen Instruments builds, sells and services pre-clinical cell-based research tools, the type of products used by pharmaceutical companies for research. The company has noticed that a lot of these firms are now outsourcing a large portion of their lab work, prompting Essen Instruments to create the Discovery Services Business Unit Development Project.

"We had to develop a business unit to take advantage of that," Naegle says.

This new division of the company, which already employs 25 people on the city�s south side, will employ scientists, technicians and instrument operators. These workers will conduct drug-discovery research in up to 3,000 square feet of laboratory space in Ann Arbor.

Source: Brad Naegle, a spokesman for Essen Instruments
Writer: Jon Zemke