PFE Pfizer Inc

By Colin Kellaher

Pfizer Inc. on Monday said it plans to invest $120 million to expand a manufacturing plant in Michigan to support production of its Covid-19 pill Paxlovid.

The New York drugmaker said the expansion of the plant in Kalamazoo will boost the production of active pharmaceutical ingredient and registered starting materials used in making Paxlovid, which has become the leading pandemic pill prescribed in the U.S.

Registered starting materials are the raw materials that are chemically converted into active pharmaceutical ingredient, which is the active ingredient in a medicine.

Pfizer said the investment will create more than 250 jobs at the Kalamazoo plant, which will be among the world's largest producers of active pharmaceutical ingredient, with a capacity of 1,200 metric tons a year.

Paxlovid has gained traction in the U.S. as supplies have improved and its availability at pharmacies widened. The drug has totaled more than 412,000 U.S. prescriptions through May 6, compared with about 110,000 prescriptions of molnupiravir, an antiviral from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, according to drug-data firm Iqvia Holdings Inc.

Pfizer said it has shipped 12 million courses of Paxlovid across 37 countries, including 5 million courses to the U.S., adding that it has manufactured almost 17 million treatment courses total.

The company said making the drug requires a significant amount of manufacturing capacity across all aspects of the production process, and that the Kalamazoo investment will let it boost supply capacity as needed to meet global demand.

-Jared S. Hopkins contributed to this article

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 06, 2022 11:36 ET (15:36 GMT)

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