Editor’s (re)view: Big Pharma doubles down on manufacturing investments
As 2024 comes to an end, Big Pharma continues to significantly boost its investments in manufacturing. Several large drug manufacturers this week announced they are adding to their cash outlays and expanding their respective production footprints in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Eli Lilly on Thursday unveiled a $3 billion expansion of its recently acquired manufacturing facility in Kenosha County, Wisconsin — the single largest U.S. manufacturing investment outside the company’s home state of Indiana. With the outlay, Lilly is looking to extend its global parenteral (injectable) product manufacturing network to help meet the growing demand for its wildly popular diabetes and obesity drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, as well as future pipeline medicines.
In its announcement, Lilly said the expanded Wisconsin facility will leverage advanced automation — including guided vehicles, robotics and production equipment — to speed up medicine production. “From data management to operations, digital automation will be embedded throughout the site to accelerate processes and increase accuracy, allowing employees to focus on making safe, high-quality medicines.”
Lilly noted that it has committed more than $23 billion since 2020 to build, expand and buy manufacturing sites globally, including a $1.8 billion investment in Ireland in September 2024. At the same time, the company is leading a Big Pharma resurgence in U.S.-based manufacturing as drugmakers make multibillion-dollar commitments to domestic infrastructure.
In May, Lilly more than doubled its investment in the company’s Lebanon, Indiana, manufacturing site, jumping from $3.7 billion to $9 billion — and claiming it was the largest investment in U.S. history in active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing of synthetic medicines. In October, the company also announced a $4.5 billion investment in Lebanon to create the Lilly Medicine Foundry, a new center for manufacturing and drug development.
Lilly’s diabetes/obesity drug rival Novo Nordisk in June said it plans to invest $4.1 billion to build a second fill–finish manufacturing facility at its site in Clayton, North Carolina, adding 1.4 million square feet of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes and effectively doubling the combined square footage of all three of the Danish drugmaker’s existing facilities in the Tar Heel state.
The Clayton outlay is one of the largest manufacturing investments in Novo Nordisk’s history. However, it pales in comparison to the company’s plan to acquire three Catalent fill-finish sites for $11 billion from Novo Holdings in connection with its $16.5 billion buyout of the CDMO.
Amgen, AstraZeneca expand US footprints
Other biopharma giants, including Amgen and AstraZeneca, have recently announced large investments in U.S. manufacturing facilities to — among other reasons — bolster supply chain resilience and reduce dependence on international sites.
Amgen on Thursday said it is investing $1 billion to expand the company’s production footprint in Holly Springs, North Carolina, with plans to build a second drug substance manufacturing facility there—having previously committed $550 million—and bringing its total investment in the area to more than $1.5 billion. In February, Amgen opened a nearly 300,000-square-foot biomanufacturing site in Central Ohio, which the company called its “most advanced facility to date.”
Not to be outdone, AstraZeneca last month said it was investing $3.5 billion to expand the company’s U.S. R&D and manufacturing footprint, including a next-generation biologics manufacturing facility in Maryland, specialty manufacturing operations in Texas, as well as cell therapy manufacturing facilities on both the East and West Coasts.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot in a statement said the multibillion-dollar investment “reflects the attractiveness of the business environment together with the quality of talent and innovation capabilities” in the U.S. — the company’s largest market, bringing in 44% of its total revenue.
Novo Nordisk, Sanofi in Europe and Asia
In Europe, Novo Nordisk this week continued to make manufacturing news in two separate announcements. On Monday, the Danish drugmaker announced it has begun construction on a $400 million, 53,000-square-meter quality control laboratory in Hillerød, Denmark, designed to comply with the demands of current and future Good Manufacturing Practice, and marking the company’s largest investment in advanced quality control to date.
Novo Nordisk this week also finalized a $200 million agreement to buy Novavax’s manufacturing facility in Bohumil, Czech Republic. The deal includes a 150,000-square-foot recombinant protein production site, support buildings, infrastructure, and the existing workforce.
In Asia, French pharma giant Sanofi opened a $595 million vaccine facility in Singapore, marking the company’s first evolutive vaccine facility (EVF) outside of France. The facility is part of Sanofi’s nearly $1 billion investment to develop two EVFs globally, with the other site located in Neuville-sur-Saône, near Lyon, France.
Also, this week, Sanofi announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in a new insulin manufacturing hub in Beijing, making it the company’s largest single investment in China. The site, Sanofi’s fourth production and supply base in the country, will feature advanced automation, digital management systems, and sustainability-focused infrastructure.
Sanofi is the latest Big Pharma to make a major manufacturing investment in China. In March, Novo Nordisk revealed expansion plans in Tianjin, China, investing approximately $580 million to boost the production of sterile preparations.
