Carmel cancels pharmaceutical firm’s tax break

Carmel City Council voted 6-0 Monday to terminate a tax abatement for Pharmakon LTC Pharmacy, which relocated its drug-repackaging operation to Noblesville last year.

Pharmakon, which won state and local incentives to move its headquarters from Indianapolis to Carmel in 2008, has not filed its annual compliance report since 2012.

The council suspended its 10-year personal property tax abatement last year, and officially canceled it with Monday’s vote.

Last year, founder Paul Elmer told IBJ that the tax break—worth about $16,700—“wasn’t worth the trouble” of completing the required paperwork.

Pharmakon had been late filing the form once before, City Councilor Luci Snyder said then, and promised salaries of $50,000 a year had not come to fruition—although the company did create more jobs than it promised.

Noblesville Common Council in September approved $225,000 in abatements for Pharmakon and sister firm Pharmakon Pharmaceuticals, which supply long-term-care facilities and government hospitals with pharmaceuticals packed for convenience.

At the time, the companies a total of more than 200 employees in Carmel. Plans called for moving 65 jobs to Noblesville in 2013 and adding 70 more within five years.

The company expected a total payroll of more than $8 million within five years. The new positions will pay about $45,000 per year, Pharmakon said in its Noblesville abatement application. Annual salaries for existing jobs were listed at $80,000.

Pharmakon said it would invest nearly $1.5 million to renovate and equip a 37,000-square-foot industrial building at 14450 Getz Road.

Elmer said then he wanted a location that could accommodate both companies once the Carmel lease expires