Pfizer to Increase Production Capacity of COVID-19 Oral Drugs, Invest 120 Million US Dollars

Pfizer disclosed in its first quarterly report in 2022 that the sales revenue of Paxlovid, an oral drug for the new crown, was US$1.5 billion. According to the company's 2021 financial report, sales in 2022 are expected to reach $22 billion.

Paxlovid is a combination of high-dose 3CL protease inhibitor nirmatrelvir (two 150mg tablets) and low-dose Ritonavir (one 100mg tablet) administered orally twice daily for 5 days as a course of treatment. To date, Pfizer has delivered 12 million treatments in 37 countries, plus 5 million in the U.S., for a total of nearly 17 million treatments.

According to data previously disclosed by foreign media, a course of this prescription is priced at about $530 in the United States, and its prescription volume is far ahead of the competing molnupiravir (Merck’s new crown oral drug). At this price, to achieve $22 billion in revenue, it means that at least 41.5 million courses of treatment need to be produced (not considering price cuts and price changes in other countries).

In order to ensure a stable supply of drugs, Pfizer recently stated that it will continue to expand its production capacity on the basis of the original state of Michigan, and invest $120 million in a 1,300-acre (about 526 hectares) manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, the state. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and Starting Material (RSM) for the production of nirmatrelvir, the key ingredient in Paxlovid. Pfizer expects the expansion to create more than 250 jobs.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that in a short period of time, Pfizer's global supply chain system has produced billions of doses of vaccines and millions of courses of new crown oral medicines, making the impossible possible. The expansion of the Kalamazoo, Michigan facility will not only help more patients around the world, but also an important move to keep manufacturing innovation in the United States.

According to foreign media Endpoints News, Pfizer will further expand its production capacity in the future, including the construction of Phase 2 of its modular sterile processing sterile injectable drug production facility in Kalamazoo. In 2021, construction of Phase 1 of the production facility (a sterile injectables factory, covering 420,000 square feet) broke ground, when Pfizer disclosed that it would provide 450 new jobs.

Patheon, a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher, also recently disclosed that it will expand its production facility in Cincinnati, and plans to increase the supply of active ingredients for Pfizer and Merck's new crown oral drugs, as well as the insomnia treatment drug Suvorexant.

The outbreak of the new crown epidemic not only urges pharmaceutical companies to speed up their research and development progress, but also competes with pharmaceutical companies in terms of production capacity and supply system. Drug development takes time, and its production also requires a huge system support, which also poses a high challenge to the company's supply chain system.