When Swiss-based Novartis AG was awarded the contract by the World Health Organization to produce a new malaria vaccine, the pharmaceutical company considered which of their factories around the world was best-suited for manufacturing the drug. The answer? The Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation facility in Suffern, New York.

As a result, Novartis will invest more than $15 million in the Rockland County plant and create 100 new jobs. The 500,000 square foot facility, which is the company's primary U.S. production operation, currently employs about 475 people and manufactures drugs to treat heart disease, high blood pressure and epilepsy, among other ailments. They also package bulk Novartis products for the U.S. market that are shipped in from other plants. There has been a pharmaceutical factory at the Suffern site since the days of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, first under the name of Geigy Chemical Corporation and later Ciba-Geigy. It took the name Novartis when Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merged in 1996.

Empire State Development Corporation is providing a $1.1 million capital grant to Novartis to help offset equipment purchases and make the production process more competitive with plants the company owns in India, China, Nebraska and Colorado.