MCPHERSON ? The state’s future as a center for bioscience research is here, in McPherson.

“What you’re doing here is the essence of what we want to become,” said Clay Blair, chairman of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, referring to plans to add more than 100 workers – many of them scientists – to the Hospira pharmaceutical plant.

Blair and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius addressed a gathering of more than 350 of the company’s employees Thursday.

Company officials said the work force expansion was made possible, in part, by $200,000 in grants from the Bioscience Authority.

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One of the grants is for $45,000. It will underwrite summer internships for three years for five students from colleges or universities in Kansas.

The other grant sets aside $155,000 for Hospira to use in recruiting and retaining recent college graduates.

Hospira plant manager Bill Gately said plans call for using some of the money to help graduates pay off their student loans in exchange for their going to work for – and staying with – Hospira.

“This is exactly the kind of activity we want to incent,” Blair said, noting that while Hospira is engaged in cutting-edge research, it will be creating jobs for Kansas-educated scientists.

Blair said he hoped the grants would come to be seen as a model for those awarded by the agency in the future.

The grants, he said, will offset concerns the bioscience authority would cater to research efforts already under way in northeast Kansas in Douglas and Johnson counties.

From left, Kansas Secretary of Commerce Howard Fricke, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Bioscience Authority Chairman Clay Blair talk Thursday at the Hospira pharmaceutical plant in McPherson.

“This is one of our first grants, and I think it’s great that it’s for what’s happening in McPherson,” he said.

Sebelius shared Blair’s sentiments.

“We are delighted to be partners” with Hospira, she said.

The company also has received educational and training grants from the Kansas Department of Commerce.

Hospira is the nation’s leading manufacturer of generic injection drugs that are administered by shots or IV setups.

At its McPherson plant, the company manufactures 130 different drugs. Another 46 are in varying stages of development.

Last year, Hospira spent $50 million on a 150,000-square-foot addition. It plans to invest another $60 million by 2008.