By Carl O'Donnell
Aug 21 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc is investing $500million to expand a manufacturing facility in Sanford, NorthCarolina, that plays a central role in its efforts to become amajor player in gene therapy, the company said on Wednesday.
The investment will add additional capacity and capabilitiesto a facility that makes some of Pfizer's most closely watchedexperimental treatments.
The Sanford plant manufactures therapies used for thecompany's late-stage experimental treatments for DuchenneMuscular Dystrophy (DMD) and hemophilia B therapies, among othergene therapies.
It is also responsible for making components for some ofPfizer's vaccines, such as Prevenar 13, which had nearly $6billion in sales in 2018.
“The expansion of the Sanford site is expected to createhundreds of highly skilled jobs, which would increase Sanford’shigh-tech manufacturing environment and is part of our overallplan to invest approximately $5 billion in U.S.-based capitalprojects over the next several years,” Mike McDermott, presidentof Pfizer Global Supply, said in a statement announcing theinvestment.
Pfizer has been looking to move into innovative and fast-growing therapeutic areas such as oncology and gene therapy inrecent years as it prepares for a looming patent cliff on someof its biggest drugs in the mid-2020's.
In March, Pfizer agreed to buy gene therapies underdevelopment at French biotech Vivet Therapeutics for as much as$636 million. It has gene therapies under development fordiseases including DMD, hemophilia, and Amyotrophic lateralsclerosis (ALS).
Pfizer is in a race with rivals such as Sarepta TherapeuticsInc to be the first to bring a curative, late-stagetreatment to DMD market.
Sarepta recently faced a setback when the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration, citing safety risks, rejected its application tomarket a DMD treatment called Vyondys 53, which is not a genetherapy.
Pfizer has been making big moves toward becoming a morestreamlined business focused exclusively on innovative drugs.
Late last year, it agreed to combine its consumer healthbusiness with that of GlaxoSmithKline Plc.
In July, it spun off its established pharmaceuticalbusiness, which contains its off-patent drugs, and combined itwith generic drugmaker Mylan NV.
(Reporting by Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Dan Grebler)