Dive Brief:
Pfizer on Monday announced plans to invest $120 million in a drug manufacturing facility located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which will lead to the creation of over 250 jobs.
The investment is aimed at accelerating production of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill Paxlovid, demand for which has risen after Pfizer’s initial struggles to make sufficient quantities following the drug’s clearance in December. To date, Pfizer has delivered 12 million courses of the drug across 37 countries, 5 million of which have been shipped to the U.S.
The Kalamazoo plant, one of Pfizer’s largest drugmaking sites, will make the starting materials and active ingredient contained within Paxlovid. The new investment expands the site’s capacity, making it one of the world’s largest producers of pharmaceutical ingredients, according to Pfizer.
Dive Insight:
Pfizer’s investment is a response to booming demand for Paxlovid as COVID-19 infections, which reached a recent low in the U.S. in March, have gradually climbed once again.
In prior surges, the U.S. relied on injectable or infused antibody drugs to help prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations or deaths. But the omicron variant made treatments from Eli Lilly and Regeneron ineffective, upping the need for Pfizer’s pill, which hasn’t had the same issues.
Last year, the Biden administration acquired 10 million courses of Paxlovid and in April pledged to secure upwards of 20 million more. However, supply was scarce in the early stages of the drug’s rollout, and doses weren’t always easy to find or to access.
Use of Paxlovid has gr …