Cuba to meet Westchester, Rockland drug makers

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's trade mission to Cuba includes top executives from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer – competing drug companies with hundreds of employees and major economic footprints in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Cuomo is the first state governor making a trade mission to Cuba since President Barack Obama initiated the process in December.

"The representatives in New York's delegation will help ensure Empire State companies are at the front of the line as the door opens to a market that has been closed to U.S. enterprise for over half a century," Cuomo stated before the trip today.

Here are some highlights of how this Cuba trade mission impacts jobs and economic development in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties:

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is based in Tarrytown, and has about 2,500 total employees. About 900 of those jobs are at the drug maker's facility in East Greenbush, outside Albany.

Dr. Leonard Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron, is among the group of business and education leaders traveling to Cuba with Cuomo and other state officials.

Schleifer is also co-chair of the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, one of 10 such regional councils competing for hundreds of millions of state economic development dollars awarded annually. In 2014, the Mid-Hudson council won the largest award of $82.8 million, out of a $709 million total.

Regeneron is also involved in a research partnership with Sanofi, a French-based pharmaceutical conglomerate with a presence in Cuba, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Sanofi's website.

Sanofi has an office with a Habana, Cuba address and phone number on its website. Sanofi and Regeneron officials could not be reached immediately to comment.

Since 2007, Regeneron has received hundreds of millions of dollars from Sanofi. Between 2009 and 2017, the French company will invest $160 million per year, or $1.44 billion total, in Regeneron's research under the agreement, SEC filings show. Regeneron executives have said they plan to double their workforce during the next five years, although they have not said where those nearly 2,500 jobs would be created.

Pfizer, a biopharmaceutical company based in Manhattan, has more than 4,600 workers in New York. That figure includes about 1,300 at its vaccine and biologics research site in Rockland County. Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, the chief medical officer and executive vice president of Pfizer, is on the Cuba trade mission.

A Pfizer spokesperson provided a statement about the Cuba trip, saying the company appreciated being invited by the governor.

Earlier this year, Pfizer informed state labor officials it would be laying off 50 of its workers at the Rockland County facility in Pearl River. That follows the company's announcement in 2014 that it was laying off 44 workers at the site.

Twitter: @DrobinsonLoHud