FACILITIES
Eisai Plans $105-Million Pharma Production and Formulation R&D Facility
Eisai Inc. (Teaneck, NJ, http://www.eisai.com/), the US pharmaceutical subsidiary of Eisai Co. Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan, http://www.eisai.co.jp), plans to invest $105 million for a new pharmaceutical production and formulation research and development facility for
parenteral oncology treatments in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Of the $105-million capital project, $90 million will be used to build a roughly 65,000-ft2 facility that will encompass aseptic processing suites, laboratories, and other support functions. The remaining $15 million
will be used to construct a separate central utilities building to supply power, steam, chilled water, and compressed air
to existing operations and the new parenteral facility.
Eisai's existing facility at Research Triangle Park encompasses roughly 190,000 ft2 . It is used for the manufacture of "Aricpet" (donepezil) and "Aciphex" (rabeprazole), formulation research and development,
and manufacturing of compounds for use in clinical trials. Groundbreaking for the project is expected in the fall, and operations are expected to begin in 2009.
–Patricia Van Arnum
BMS Plans to Build $660-Million Bulk Biologics Manufacturing Facility
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS, New York, NY, http://www.bms.com/) plans to build a large-scale multiproduct bulk biologics manufacturing facility in the United States. The company's board
of directors approved a capital expenditure of $660 million for the project.
BMS has not made a final decision about the location of the facility, but it has narrowed its choice to four possible states—Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New York, or North Carolina—said Anthony Hooper, BMS's president of US Pharmaceuticals, at an investor briefing
in early March. The company will make a decision regarding the location by the end of the second quarter of this year and
will begin construction in the third quarter. The company plans to complete construction by 2009 and bring the first commercial
supply on-line by 2011.
The new capacity provided by the new biologics facility will be in addition to biologics supply agreements that BMS has with
Lonza AG (Basel, Switzerland, http://www.lonza.com/) and Celltrion Inc. (Incheon, South Korea, http://www.celltrion.com/), said Hooper.
The new bulk biologics manufacturing facility will be used to support current and pipeline biologics drugs. BMS has two biologics
on the market: "Orenica" (abatacept) and "Erbitux" (cetuximab). Orenica, its first internally developed biologic, was approved
by the US Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, MD, http://www.fda.gov/) in December 2005 for treating rheumatoid arthritis. In January 2006, BMS submitted a supplemental biologics license application
to FDA for the licensure of a third-party manufacturing facility to support increased production capacity for Orenica. Erbitux
was approved for a second cancer indication earlier this month to treat head and neck cancer. It also is approved for treating
colorectal cancer.
Key biologics in development are belatacept for treating solid-organ-transplant rejection and the anticancer therapy ipilimumab,
which BMS has licensed from Medarex Inc. (Princeton, NJ, http://www.medarex.com/).
Board approval for the $660-million capital project comes as BMS continues its cost-cutting program. The company has a goal
of reducing costs by $500 million before 2007 and by an additional $100 million before 2008. These savings will be in addition
to annual reductions of $200 million already achieved in 2004 and 2005, primarily gained through realigning its US and European
sales forces, restructuring pharmaceutical development, and some outsourcing of information technology activities.
Separately, BMS received FDA priority review for its investigational oncology treatment, dasatinib.
–Patricia Van Arnum
