Following a change to U.S. corporate tax laws, Pfizer announced at the beginning of this year that it intends to invest $5 billion in U.S. manufacturing over the next five years. On Tuesday, Pfizer showed its commitment to that promise with a $465 million investment in a new Michigan manufacturing site that is expected to create more than 450 jobs.
The Pharma giant said it will build “one of the most technically advanced sterile injectable pharmaceutical production facilities in the world” in the southern Michigan city of Portage. Pfizer said the investment will strengthen the company’s capability to “produce and supply” injectable medicines.
The new site will be home to about 400,000 square feet of manufacturing space. A groundbreaking is planned for spring 2019 and construction is expected to be completed in 2021. After the facility is validated by regulatory agencies, production should begin in 2024, the company said.
When fully operational, the site will provide employment opportunities for 450 people. Pfizer did not specify how long it will take to hit that number. The company did say that the new manufacturing facility will expand on the company’s existing presence in the Portage area. Pfizer currently employs 2,200 people in Portage. And things in Portage and the surrounding parts of Kalamazoo County are apparently just beginning as far as Pfizer is concerned. Portage Site Leader Ron Perry said the new sterile facility will strengthen Portage’s role in the Pfizer global network. Perry noted the difficulties in sterile product manufacturing and said the new site will provide the company with the tools and people to “remain a trusted and reliable supplier” of such products to patients.
The site will be known as Modular Aseptic Processing (MAP). It will include advanced aseptic manufacturing equipment, systems and design, including multiple, self-contained modular manufacturing lines, Pfizer said. These will allow the manufacturing lines in each module to operate independently from all other manufacturing lines, the company said.
Kirsten Lund-Jurgensen, Pfizer’s head of global supply, said the Portage investment will strengthen the company’s leadership in sterile manufacturing as it helps meet growing patient demand. She also pointed to the hundreds of jobs the facility will create, which she said will fortify “Michigan’s high-tech manufacturing environment.”
Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Ian Read said the company has a plan to invest approximately $1.1 billion in Kalamazoo County over the next six years. That $1.1 billion is on top of another $1 billion the company has already spent on Kalamazoo County over the past 10 years, Read said. The proposed $1.1 billion investment is part of the $5 billion the company initially proposed in January.
“Every day, we strive to enhance our ability to bring medicines to the patients who need them, and the new facility we are building in Michigan will help us continue to deliver therapies that significantly improve people’s lives,” Read said in a statement.
The existing Portage manufacturing site makes more than 150 products and is a primary global supplier of sterile injectable, liquids and semi-solid medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Its biggest product is Solu-Medrol, a widely used injectable anti-inflammatory medicine.
Source: Biospace
