Pfizer re-acquires Rouses Point from Akrimax
pharmafile | July 5, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Pfizer, pharma manufacturing news
Pfizer has decided to buy back a manufacturing facility in Rouses Point, New York, from current owner Akrimax Pharmaceuticals, and now says it plans to either sell or shutter it by 2013.
The 950,000 sq. ft. unit was formerly owned by Wyeth, which merged with Pfizer in 2009, and sold to Akrimax in the prior year for a knockdown price of around $8 million.
Akrimax had ambitions to operate the plant for contract manufacturing but, while it made some revenue making legacy products bought from Wyeth along with the facility, it failed to win enough third-party contracts to make the unit financially viable over the long-term.
Akrimax also took over the unit just as the bottom fell out of the CMO sector, caused by overcapacity and fewer new products coming through the pharma industry’s R&D pipeline.
The company’s departure will lead to the loss of around 60 jobs, although new owner Pfizer says it plans to maintain a staff there of around 300 for a couple of years while it looks for a buyer.
Rouses Point was a major manufacturing facility for Wyeth’s hormone replacement therapy Premarin (conjugated oestrogens), but dropped in priority after the product suffered significant sales declines after 2002, mainly as a result of concerns over a link to cancer.
As part of its deal with Akrimax, Wyeth leased a portion of the manufacturing space in order to maintain supplies of Premain and certain other products, including antidepressant Effexor XR (venlafaxine).
Its main product now is Prempro (conjugated oestrogens and medroxyprogesterone acetate) which remains a big seller with sales of around $1 billion a year, though well down from its multibillion dollar peak. At its height Rouses Point employed around 1,100 workers.
The financial terms of the re-acquisition have not been divulged.
Phil Taylor
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