GSK. GSKis investing EUR 250 million ($335 million) in its production site at Currabinny, County Cork, Ireland, through 2012 to support production for lapatinib, the API in "Tykerb," a new oral treatment for breast cancer.

In biologics, GSK announced several projects for vaccine production. It is investing £100 million ($200 million) for a vaccine-manufacturing plant in Singapore for the primary production of pediatric vaccines. GSK also is investing more than EUR 500 million ($680 million) in its St-Amand-Les-Eaux, France, vaccine-manufacturing plant to increase formulation, filling, freeze-drying, and packaging production. The facility is expected to be operational in 2011 and will produce vaccine for cervical cancer, meningitis, pneumonia, and influenza. Also, GSK opened an EUR 100-million ($136-million) primary production facility in Gödöllö, Hungary, for manufacturing diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis antigens used in several pediatric vaccine combinations.

In April, GSK completed a 30,000-ft² expansion of its Aiken, South Carolina, manufacturing facility to improve capacity in several processes such as dry-powder blending, tablet compression, tablet coating, and tablet printing.

Sanofi is building a $160-million vaccine-manufacturing facility in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, which will double its US production capacity. Sanofi also is investing EUR 160 million for a formulation-filling facility in Val de Reuil, France, and will expand cell-culture based virology production at its facility in Marcy l'Etoile, France.

In March 2006, Sanofi-Aventis acquired an additional 25% stake in Zentiva for EUR 430 million ($577 million), becoming that company's largest shareholder. Zentiva is a pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and markets branded, low-cost pharmaceutical products. The company employs nearly 5000 people and has manufacturing plants in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania.

Novartis. Novartis is building a cell-culture-derived influenza-vaccines manufacturing plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Novartis will spend approximately $600 million, including a $220-million award from the US Department of Health and Human Services, to complete the site. The plant is expected to produce about 50 million doses of seasonal trivalent flu vaccines annually for the US market. The site also is designed to produce 150 million monovalent vaccine doses annually within six months of an influenza-pandemic declaration. In parallel, Novartis is making additional investments to expand capacity for flu cell-culture vaccine production in Marburg, Germany.

In 2006, Novartis invested approximately $101 million to expand capacity at its Grimsby, United Kingdom, production facility to support the technical launch of its blood-pressure medicine "Tekturna–Rasilez" (aliskiren). In addition, the company invested $58 million to fund a chemical-operations production facility in China to support early-phase development activities and more than $61 million to construct a new pharmaceuticals plant in Singapore.

AstraZeneca. Earlier this year, AstraZeneca announced a new productivity initiative to improve asset utilization in production operations. The plan, which will be implemented during the next three years, involves the rationalization of production assets and a proposed reduction of approximately 3000 positions, subject to requisite employee consultations.

As part of this global restructuring effort, AstraZeneca announced plans to exit its Plakstadt, Germany, and Mississauga, Canada, sites. The plan for Plankstadt, which is used for bulk production, formulation, and packaging and currently employs 400, is to either close or sell the site by the end of 2009. Products currently manufactured at the site include "Casodex" (bicalutamide), "Zoming" (zolmitriptan), "Crestor" (rosuvastatin), and "Tenormin" (atenolol). The Mississauga packaging facility will close within the next 18 months, affecting approximately 120 employees.