Pfizer recently announced that it will wind down the construction of an Everett, Washington cancer therapies manufacturing plant that it inherited through its $43 billion acquisition of Seagen last year.
Over the summer before the acquisition closure in December 2023, Seagen had inked a $215 million deal with contractor Skanksa to build the 270,000-square-foot facility, according to the Herald in Everett. But Pfizer now plans for the product manufacturing intended for the site to take place at its expanding Sanford, North Carolina facility instead.
In a statement shared with Pharmaceutical Processing World, Pfizer said that roughly 120 employees who have been working on the initial set-up of the site will be impacted. “We will make every effort to place impacted colleagues within open roles at the Bothell site, and all impacted employees can apply to relevant open roles within Pfizer.”
The company said: “Pfizer regularly evaluates our manufacturing network to ensure capacity is effectively utilized based on projected product demands. After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to wind down construction of the site.”
According to Pfizer, the North Carolina site is in the midst of an ongoing expansion that will enable it to make the oncology medicines slated for production in Washington. “The expanded site [in North Carolina] will have the technological capability and available capacity for the manufacturing of these essential products. Clinical drug product manufacturing will take place at other sites across the network.”
The company also said: “Pfizer has an established and extensive manufacturing footprint, and we remain committed to our oncology portfolio and continuing to deliver breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.”
Seagen — formerly known as Seattle Genetics — pioneered a cancer therapy known as antibody-drug conjugates. The therapy operates like a guided missile, attacking tumors with toxic agents. The medicines have demonstrated promise in treating a variety of cancers, including Hodgkin’s and other lymphomas.