Pfizer to repurpose warehouse space in $150m Michigan investment

By Dan Stanton

- Last updated on GMT

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Image: Google Streetview

Related tags Investment Pfizer

Pfizer will convert warehouse space at its Kalamazoo-Portage plant to provide extra manufacturing capacity for sterile injectable products.

According to Pfizer spokesperson Kimberley Bencker, the firm is investing $146m (€130m) at its Kalamazoo-Portage, Michigan facility which makes Injectable products for off-patent generics for global markets.

She said the investment was for routine capital upgrades,”​ but added this involved the repurposing of the site’s current warehousing capacity.

“The manufacturing facility has reached capacity so production is moving into existing warehouse space requiring an addition to the building for new warehousing space,”​ she told in-Pharmatechnologist.com.

While there will be a modest increase in jobs, she was unable to be precise on numbers, saying: “We are a large and diverse operation and changes in other areas of the operation may impact headcount independent of this investment.”

But according to local news site Michigan Live​, the new production space will add 15 jobs while all 26 warehouse staff will be retained.

The site also said Pfizer is seeking a number of tax breaks on the projects, including a 50% abatement on the facility expansion, to be discussed in a public hearing scheduled by the city later this month.

The news is the latest endorsement for the Michigan facility, which was one of the sites to suffer cuts and restructuring following the failure of Pfizer’s inhaled insulin drug Exubera almost a decade ago​.

Since then​, the pharma giant invested $107m to upgrade to its sterile area in 2010, and injected a further $21m the following year to upgrade a production, packaging and quality inspection area at the plant.

This latest investment also comes off the back of several multi-million dollar investments across Pfizer’s manufacturing network.

In June the firm announced it was teaming up with GE Healthcare to construct a $350m modular biosimilars facility in China​, while the firm also broke ground on a new $200m clinical biomanufacturing facility​ in Andover, Massachusetts.

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