Pfizer Advances Biosimilars Leadership with Investment in Global Biotech Center in China

June 28, 2016

Pfizer announced that it will invest approximately $350 million in the development of a state-of-the-art Global Biotechnology Center at a ground-breaking ceremony in the Hangzhou Economic Development Area (HEDA) in China.

This innovative facility will be Pfizer’s third biotechnology center globally and the first in Asia. It will ensure the local production of high-quality, affordable biosimilar medicines that will benefit patients both in China and throughout the world. The establishment of the Pfizer Global Biotechnology Center also represents further investment in R&D and clinical research across China, which will further contribute to China’s growing biopharmaceutical industry and economy.

This Global Biotechnology Center will include an advanced modular facility by GE Healthcare, based on flexible single-use bio-manufacturing technology that meets strict international standards for quality, safety and efficiency, as well as accelerated speed of construction and superior environmental standards. The new center will feature GE’s single-use technology in a KUBio modular facility, which increases speed-to-market and manufacturing flexibility at costs of between 25 and 50 percent of equivalent traditional facilities in a build time that can be just 18 months as opposed to the usual three years. Carbon dioxide emissions, water and energy usage can also be reduced by 75 percent.

This Center is expected to be completed in 2018. Pfizer will work closely with Chinese regulators to bring the biosimilar products produced at the Pfizer Global Biotechnology Center in Hangzhou to market as soon as possible.

The Pfizer Global Biotechnology Center aims to support China’s healthcare reforms, assist the Chinese government in its continuing efforts to update the local industry in this sector, and provide world-class biological medicines for patients in China and the world. The facility will house Pfizer China’s Biosimilars and Biologics Quality, Technical Service, Logistics and Engineering divisions, in addition to commercial manufacturing, and will also serve as a process development and clinical supply site.

This center will create more than 150 job opportunities and establish local biotechnology expertise that will help strengthen and promote innovation as well as modernize China’s biopharmaceutical industry.