Abraxis BioScience Buys Manufacturing Complex from Pfizer

Abraxis BioScience (Schaumburg, IL, www.abraxisbio.com) has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Pfizer’s (New York, NY, www.pfizer.com) Cruce Dávila manufacturing facility in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico.

The 56-acre site incorporates a 172,000-ft², validated manufacturing plant that produces protein-based biologics, metered-dose inhalers, and injectable pharmaceuticals in compliance with United States and European Union regulations. The complex also includes a computer-controlled, 90,000-ft² active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing plant, and two support facilities with quality-assurance and other laboratories. The entire facility is expected to employ approximately 400–500 people when it is fully operational.

The complex also will provide a third manufacturing site that uses Abraxis’s proprietary nanoparticle albumin bound (nab) technology to produce chemotherapeutics such as “Abraxane” for injectable suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) (albumin-bound). The nab technology binds water-insoluble compounds with albumin, a natural carrier of hydrophobic compounds, in a nanoparticle state. This manufacturing process retains all the biological properties of albumin and helps increase the bioavailability of administered the drug product. Abraxane was the first commercial product created with nab technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abraxis will lease the chemical raw material plant back to Pfizer, which will continue manufacturing celecoxib, the active ingredient of “Celebrex.” The Cruce Dávila facility will complement Abraxis’s manufacturing sites in Melrose Park, Illinois; Grand Island, New York; and Barbengo, Switzerland. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.