The new facility would create more than 50 new jobs in the coming years, in addition to around 40 employees from Pfizer’s Chapel Hill site
Pfizer World Headquarters in Manhattan, New York. (Credit: Coolcaesar/Wikipedia.)
Pfizer has opened a new manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, US to expand its gene therapy production capabilities.
The new 85,500ft2 facility is expected to create more than 50 new jobs in the coming years, in addition to around 40 employees who will move from Pfizer’s Chapel Hill site.
It adds to the company’s existing footprint in North Carolina, where more than 3,600 employees work at different sites across the state.
The Durham facility represents a $68.5m investment, a part of the company’s $800m investment over the past six years, to expand gene therapy manufacturing.
With the investment, Pfizer aims to build three large-scale gene therapy manufacturing facilities with 300,000ft2 capacity, to support multiple gene therapy medicines.
Pfizer biotherapeutics pharmaceutical sciences vice president Paul Mensah said: “Gene therapy represents the next wave of innovation for patients living with rare diseases, for whom there are limited treatment options currently available.
“Today represents the next step in strengthening Pfizer’s in-house gene therapy capabilities and underscores the unique ability, expertise, and resources we have to guide gene therapy through the entire development and manufacturing process and deliver this potentially life-changing technology to patients.”
The new facility is planned to serve as a headquarters to the company’s BioTherapeutics and Pharmaceutical Sciences unit.
The unit is responsible for manufacturing and analytical research of clinical supplies for its gene therapy and biologics portfolio.
Pfizer currently has a gene therapy portfolio that comprises three late-stage clinical programs for haemophilia A, haemophilia B, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
The portfolio also includes 12 preclinical programmes in rare cardiology, endocrine, haematology, metabolic and neurology diseases.
Pfizer has a total bioreactor manufacturing capacity of 22,000L and leverages advanced single-use manufacturing technology.
Its capacity is scalable, and the single-use technology allows more scalable expansion of manufacturing capacity over time, said the company.
Recently, Pfizer reached a definitive agreement to acquire Arena Pharmaceuticals in an all-cash transaction valued at around $6.7bn.
Arena is a pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of potential therapies for the treatment of several immuno-inflammatory diseases.