Galen has agreed to buy a manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico that will enable it to produce the bulk of its drugs in one location. Una McCaffrey reports
The Craigavon-based firm said yesterday that it would purchase the 270,000sq ft facility from Pfizer so it could reduce its reliance on third-party production.
Much of Galen's manufacturing needs are currently contracted out to firms such as Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly. By buying its own manufacturing plant, Galen, which concentrates on women's healthcare and dermatology, will be able to control its production without reference to outside parties. It will also be able to speed up the development of new products.
Galen currently records annual sales of about $500 million (€414 million) in the US, with some individual drugs turning over $100 million. The company's vice president of finance and planning, Mr David Kelly, said this meant the company "badly needed" its own production plant.
The plant at Fajardo in Puerto Rico was ideal because it was already engaged in the production of hormone-containing products, Mr Kelly said. He said that many of Galen's drugs needed to be produced under strictly controlled environmental conditions.
Puerto Rico is an established "cluster" location for pharmaceutical production. Under the terms of the new deal, Galen will continue to manufacture some products on behalf of Pfizer until an alternative location can be found.
Galen will in turn take over the production at the plant of three drugs it bought from Pfizer early last year.
Mr Kelly declined to reveal the purchase price for the Fajardo plant but said it was small in the context of Galen's overall operations. "It wasn't an excessive cost," he said, noting that prices for such facilities had fallen in light of consolidation in the global pharmaceutical sector.
