AbbVie invests $30 million to expand in Puerto Rico
pharmafile | March 23, 2015 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | AbbVie, Alzheimer's, Puerto Rico, barceloneta, c2n
AbbVie is investing $30 million to expand one of its sites in Puerto Rico, and is also backing a promising new Alzheimer’s treatment.
The proposed expansion will take place at the company’s site in the Barceloneta municipality of the island commonwealth, which is already home to two of the company’s facilities.
Puerto Rico governor Alejandro García Padilla says: “AbbVie’s expansion in Barceloneta is very important for us, as this site is one of the world’s most advanced biopharmaceutical facilities, contributing to our island’s growing reputation as a biotech hub.
“AbbVie’s growth plans in Puerto Rico as well as its approach towards innovation and advanced therapies give us additional capabilities within the very competitive biopharmaceutical industry. Most important, their $30 million investment to expand their facilities is an encouraging expression of the company’s confidence in their future in the commonwealth.”
The US firm currently has three manufacturing sites on the island, with the first one being established in 1969. Together these produce 13 products in the areas of immunology, virology and metabolic disorders, including the company’s blockbuster arthritis treatment Humira (adalimumab), which is the world’s best-selling drug but is due to go off-patent next year.
AbbVie has reportedly received $1 million in incentives from the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company. The US territory seems keen to encourage pharma firms to open facilities on the island in general, and many plants have been set up there. Most recently, Florida-based Romak Laboratories announced it would spend $110 million to build a new facility in Manati.
However, the island has also seen major plant closures from Pfizer, Merck and Lily in recent years, and in 2011 a site owned by Johnson and Johnson was placed under a consent decree by the FDA for persistent failures to meet quality standards.
Alzheimer’s partnership
AbbVie has also recently entered into a worldwide licensing agreement with C2N Diagnostics to develop and commercialise a portfolio of Alzheimer’s disease treatments.
The drugs work by countering abnormal accumulation of tau protein – which is responsible for the structure and transport in neuronal cells – and could also be used to treat other neurological disorders such as progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration.
“The need for new approaches and therapies to address Alzheimer’s disease is critical,” says Jim Sullivan, vice president of pharmaceutical discovery at AbbVie. “C2N’s portfolio of anti-tau antibodies represents one of the most promising approaches to delaying progression of devastating neurodegenerative disease.”
However there is another promising area of Alzheimer’s that the deal ignores – inhibiting beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE). This is the approach AbbVie’s rivals AstraZeneca and Lilly are betting on in their own Alzheimer’s partnership.
Financial terms of the deal between AbbVie and C2N were not disclosed.
George Underwood
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