Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy seeks to breathe new life into Flint, Mich., with headquarters move

FLINT, Mich. A Midwestern city better known for its chronically depressed economy will get more than 1,000 jobs over the next five years as one of the largest specialty pharmacy companies in the country moves its headquarters there.

Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy announced Tuesday that it plans to move its headquarters to the 340,000-sq.-ft. Great Lakes Technology Centre in Flint, Mich., from its current location in the neighboring town of Flint Township. Diplomat, the country’s largest privately owned specialty pharmacy, received an 18-year, $61.5 million tax credit from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority for the new headquarters, as well as $14 million in workforce-training money over the next decade from Career Alliance, an agency of the non-profit Michigan Works! Association.

“Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy is a leader and innovator in specialty pharmacy, a dynamic industry experiencing explosive growth,” Diplomat president and CEO Phil Hagerman said. “The tax credits awarded to Diplomat will allow us to continue to be one of the fastest-growing, most innovative healthcare companies in the world.”

The company currently employs around 400 people, mostly in Michigan, but hopes to add 1,000 life sciences jobs at the Flint location over the next five years. The company’s expansion is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs over the next 18 years, as well as an additional 3,274 indirect jobs, according to the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, which serves Genesee County, where Flint and Flint Township are located.

The Flint Journal reported Wednesday that 100 people showed up at the Great Lakes Technology Centre to mark Diplomat’s announcement. Indeed, the news will come as a welcome relief to a community made infamous for its rapid economic deterioration following the closure of a General Motors plant, detailed in filmmaker Michael Moore’s 1989 documentary “Roger & Me.”