Pfizer opens new biologics clinical manufacturing facility in Massachusetts

Pfizer’s Andover site houses commercial manufacturing and product development functions, with colleagues dedicated to the development and production of high-quality complex biologics and vaccines.
With its modular and flexible design, the newly opened Andover Clinical Manufacturing Facility (ACMF) will expand the capacity for Pfizer’s BioTherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences organization to manufacture clinical supplies.
“We are excited to expand our presence in Andover with a state-of-the-art facility that is designed to provide clinical manufacturing options in a cost efficient and flexible mannerto help further accelerate important treatments to patients,” said Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer and President, Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical.
“We aim to increase connectivity between our research and in-house manufacturing efforts to better inform the process, ensure quality assurance, and ultimately improve patient access to potentially life-changing treatments.”
Pfizer’s ACMF investment is over $200 million and includes five independent manufacturing suites to advance Pfizer’s robust pipeline of potential new biotherapeutics and vaccines, with more than 50 projects in development.
The site will provide 75 new jobs for the Andover area economy, adding to the approximately 2,000 colleagues currently based in Massachusetts. It will bring together talent with specialized expertise to manufacture high-quality clinical supplies to support trials in disease areas including oncology, rare diseases, infectious diseases, hemophilia, and rheumatoid arthritis.
“Massachusetts is a global hub for innovation and research, and our Administration is proud to have supported the expansion of one of the world’s premier biopharmaceutical companies right here in the Commonwealth,” said Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. “Pfizer’s expansion in Andover, combined with current operations in Boston and Cambridge, is a testament to the strength of this important sector of the Commonwealth’s economy, and Pfizer’s commitment to Massachusetts.”
Pfizer’s Andover campus currently includes 7 buildings, which house laboratories, clinical and commercial manufacturing suites, and support areas. The new ACMF is a multiproduct manufacturing facility with a flexible design that allows clinical products to be manufactured more efficiently and fully enable next-generation manufacturing technologies.
“This new facility builds on a strong partnership between our Research and Development and Manufacturing teams, which is especially evident in Andover,” said Mike McDermott, President, Pfizer Global Supply. “By bringing together colleagues who play a critical role in every step of the process — from discovery through development and manufacture — we can help speed the availability of medicines to patients. Manufacturing medicines for clinical trials in these critical disease areas inspires and challenges us to bring our very best to our work and our patients every day.”

Source : pharmaceutical-business-review