A southcentral Kentucky-based company that specializes in generic pharmaceuticals said today it's leaving Bowling Green to relocate its headquarters and warehouse in the former Tyco Electronics building in Franklin.

The growth of Blu Pharmaceuticals, a year-old company currently based on Nashville Road, is pushing the need for a new facility, said the company's president, Bill Luster.

Blu Pharmaceuticals supplies product to major wholesalers, group purchasing organizations and government agencies including the Veteran's Health Administration, Indian Health Services and Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“We have a chance for real growth in Franklin, a community that really has an outstanding business climate for new companies,” Luster said in a statement.

Luster plans to tap into a growth market for generic pharmaceuticals as brand name drugs with more than $60 billion in combined annual sales will lose patent protection and face generic competition, according to the Franklin-Simpson Industrial Authority.

By 2011, more than 80 new generic medications are expected to enter the market.

Gary Broady, chairman of the Franklin-Simpson Industrial Authority, said Blu Pharmaceuticals will take up 20,000 square feet in the building.

“This is our first tenant to lease space in the Tyco industrial building the Industrial Authority purchased last year,” Broady said in a written statement. “Already renovations have begun in part of the office and manufacturing area. These changes will help us in marketing the rest of the building.”

Blu Pharmaceuticals currently has five full-time employees but is expected to expand to 40 more employees in a few years after operations begin in September.