news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A Baltimore, Md., medical company that tests people who are taking prescription painkillers will open a laboratory in Greensboro employing 228 people in 2010.

Ameritox offers the service to doctors who prescribe painkillers to their patients.

It processes urine tests to monitor whether patients are misusing prescriptions by abusing painkillers or adding illicit drugs, for example, the company says on its Web site.

Ameritox chose Greensboro because of the region’s UPS ground hub and the diverse education of its work force, from GED to Ph.D., said Joel McEndree, a company vice president.

“From the very beginning, they made it crystal clear what was going to drive the deal,” said Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, the city’s business recruiter. “It was always about labor and logistics.”

The company plans to use an existing building for its lab. Ameritox did not pursue public financial incentives for the project because, in the end, the region’s strong assets sold themselves, McEndree said.

Incentives were “one of 20 different things we evaluated in order to pick a location,” he said. Several weeks ago, company officials spoke with the city and county to discuss incentives.

“It was worth checking into, but it wasn’t a key point for us,” McEndree said.

“I think they had an opportunity to come to the board, but I guess they didn’t want to take on the responsibility that incentives could give them,” said Melvin “Skip” Alston, chairman of the county commissioners, noting the hiring requirements that are often attached to incentives.

“I’m excited that they decided to come anyway and applaud them for doing that.”

Ameritox chose about 20 cities for close scrutiny, McEndree said.

All the cities offered good climates, he said, because the company must transport its tests quickly and unimpeded by weather. Likewise, a good highway system was essential.

“Then we started analyzing the most important thing, which was availability of talent, labor and educational facilities,” he said. Three cities, including Greensboro, made the final cut.

McEndree said Greensboro offers an excellent group of universities and community colleges.

Ameritox will employ chemists with master’s degrees, workers with four-year degrees, Ph.D. scientists and entry-level workers.

“Greensboro has a lot of universities in the area and there’s a lot of talent coming out of the universities,” he said.

Greensboro’s economic developers assembled a powerful group of educators to make a persistent sales pitch to Ameritox, Lynch said.

Ameritox was attracted by a growing bioscience industry in this region.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com