Wyeth. Wyeth is investing EUR 24 million ($33 million) to add 6000 m² of laboratory space for process-development and R&D facilities at its Grange Castle biopharmaceutical campus in Dublin, Ireland, according to the Irish Development Agency. Wyeth opened the $2-billion biotechnology drug-production facility in Grange Castle in 2005. The facility performs drug fermentation, sterile fill-and-finish, and process development. In 2006, Wyeth added a manufacturing suite at its biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Andover, Massachusetts. The company also has significant, ongoing capital projects to support additional manufacturing capacity and new products at its facilities in Sanford, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico, according to its annual report.

Bristol-Myers Squibb. BMS broke ground in May 2007 for its $750-million, large-scale, multiproduct, bulk-biologics manufacturing facility in Devens, Massachusetts—the single largest capital investment in its history. Phase I of the project calls for the construction of four main buildings: a manufacturing structure that will house six 20,000-L cell-culture vessels and one purification train, a central utility building, an administrative and quality-control building, and a warehouse and storage structure. The facility is projected to be operationally complete in 2009, and BMS plans to submit the site for regulatory approval in 2010. The facility will support increased production capacity for "Orcencia" (abatacept), BMS's first internally discovered and developed biologic medicine, and also will manufacture commercial quantities of compounds currently in development should those compounds receive regulatory approval. BMS has biologic manufacturing agreements with third-party partners Lonza Biologics, Inc. (Basel, Switzerland) and Celltrion, Inc. (Incheon, Korea).

BMS currently manufactures biologic compounds in a company-owned facility in Syracuse, New York, and finishes and packages biologic compounds in Manati, Puerto Rico. The Syracuse site was not designed to accommodate large-scale commercial production but will continue to serve as a center in process development and early-product launch for BMS's biologic compounds. The Manati facility, which also is wholly owned by the company, will continue to finish and package biologic compounds. In March 2006, BMS announced a $200-million investment to expand this facility.

Amgen. Earlier this year, Amgen revised its schedule for completing a new manufacturing facility in County Cork, Ireland. In 2006, Amgen announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in new process development, bulk protein production, and fill-and-finish facilities, with an initial target of beginning operations in 2010. An Amgen official explained that the amount of additional capacity Amgen intends to develop in Ireland, the overall capital investment, and the number of staff it plans to employ have not changed, but the company will stagger and extend its timelines to allow for a more efficient project execution. In addition, Amgen will continue to monitor business needs to determine whether it needs to accelerate the construction start. The bulk-manufacturing capacity is scheduled to be operational in 2012, and regulatory licensure of the facility is anticipated for 2013. The process-development laboratories will be constructed in conjunction with the bulk facility or as needed to support the start-up of the manufacturing capacity. The fill-and-finish capacity is scheduled to be operational by 2013, with regulatory licensure anticipated by 2014.

Amgen is investing more than $1 billion to build a new bulk-protein manufacturing facility in Juncos, Puerto Rico, for "Neupogen" (filgrastim), "Neulasta" (pegfilgrastim), Epogen, and Aranesp. The company also will construct a new formulation, fill, and finish facility.

Abbott. In April 2007, Abbott opened a $450-million, 330,000-ft² biologics manufacturing facility in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, to support the long-term supply of its biologic agent, "Humira" (adalimumab).