Avara agrees to buy ex-Hospira plant in Italy from Pfizer

By Gareth Macdonald

- Last updated on GMT

iStock/Ruskpp
iStock/Ruskpp

Related tags Pharmaceutical drug Pharmacology

Avara Pharmaceutical Services has agreed to buy Pfizer Inc. sterile drug manufacturing facility in Liscate, Italy.

The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – will see the ex-Hospira facility become part of Avara’s six-strong network of manufacturing plants.

Avara stated that it will maintain the current production output and 250-strong workforce employed at the facility.

The Liscate plant will be the second Avara has bought from a major drug maker in two years. Last September it acquired AstraZeneca’s Crestor active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) facility in Avlon, UK, also taking on 210 people employed at the site.

Site history

The site was the subject of a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letter​ in 2015​.

A few months later Canadian authorities banned all non-medically necessary​ products made at the site, including own brand nausea treatments and the injectable vitamin supplement Calcijex that Hospira produced for AbbVie.

Drugs not covered by the ban – included the injectable monoclonal antibody-based respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Synagis (palivizumab) which Hospira made for AbbVie.

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