Pfizer sells ex-Hospira API plant in Colorado to CDMO CordenPharma
When Pfizer bought Hospira in September 2015 for $17bn (€14.4bn), it added a number of facilities to its manufacturing network including the 54,000 sq ft facility in Boulder, Colorado.
Nine months later, the Big Pharma firm announced it was looking to exit the site by the end of 2019 due to “under-utilisation,” making way for today’s agreement with contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) CordenPharma.
Financial details of the acquisition – expected to close in November – have not been divulged, but Achim Riemann, managing director of CordenPharma’s owner ICIG, said the facility will “augment CordenPharma’s Highly Potent & Oncology platform and integrated supply service offering,” complementing the CDMO’s solid dosage and sterile injectables capabilities.
Brian McCudden, MD of CordenPharma Colorado told this publication all 100 staff will be transferred over to CordenPharma and the site could be subject to future expansions. "The site has significant existing capability and we will be evaluating additional capital investments in the future."
The plant manufactures a number of Hospira/Pfizer APIs, including paclitaxel, tromethamine, and irinotecan, with capabilities ranging from very small scale up to 3,000L.
And CordenPharma will continue making these products at the facility for Pfizer through a multi-year supply agreement, it said as it looks to “help defray costs associated with running the site for the next few years while it adds new client work into the facility.”
The approach – offloading an under-utilised facility to a third-party, and contracting it continue supply of ingredients or finished doses – is common.
Roche recently sold a solid dose site in Leganés, Spain to Recipharm and inked a €35m supply deal with the CDMO.
Meanwhile a formulation site in Italy was sold to Delpharm, and last year its Xeloda (capecitabine) API plant in Florence, South Carolina was sold to Patheon.
