Pfizer plant ready to milk Asian infant formula market
pharmafile | July 9, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Pfizer, Singapore, manufacturing, nutrition
Pfizer has spent $100 million to double the size of a manufacturing facility in Singapore to help it boost its presence in the fast-growing infant nutritional products market.
The 92,000 sq.m. plant in Singapore’s Tuas industrial zone – and formerly owned by Wyeth – is now the biggest nutritionals plant in the Pfizer group and already supplies about a fifth of the world’s infant nutrition demand, said the company.
The increased capacity will help meet demand for infant formula and related products throughout Asia, and particularly key markets such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
At the official unveiling of the plant, Singapore’s Trade and Industry minister Lim Hng Kian said that the global infant nutritionals market is growing at nearly 10% a year at the moment, and should swell from around $23 billion in 2009 to $32 billion in 2014.
Asia’s rising affluence and urbanisation means it has become the fastest growing region for nutritional products in the world, having overtaken the US and Europe in volume in the mid 2000s. And that growth looks set to continue unabated; the Asian market is expected to expand by 50% over the next five years and will account for more than 40% of global demand.
With the latest round of investment, Pfizer’s total spend on the plant now stands at around $372 million. Production capacity has increased by around 50% and the drugmaker has also recruited another 100 staff to work at the plant, bringing the total workforce to around 590 people.
Pfizer said the plant was designed to be as environmentally-friendly as possible, with more than half the water used for maintenance purposes recycled.
The drugmaker has also taken steps in the past to reduce energy consumption at its Singapore facilities, for example setting up an innovative collaboration with a local power firm to cut costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions at a chemical synthesis unit located in Tuas.
Pfizer also operates nutritional manufacturing facilities in Ireland, China, Mexico and the Philippines.
Phil Taylor
Related Content
NICE recommends Pfizer’s new once-weekly treatment for haemophilia B on NHS
Walton Oaks, 21st May 2025 – Pfizer Ltd announced today that the National Institute for Health and Care …
CARBOGEN AMCIS manufacturing license advances services in China
Swiss pharma manufacturing company, CARBOGEN AMCIS, has announced that its facility in Shanghai, China, has …
Meribel Pharma Solutions launches to take pharma services to new heights
Meribel Pharma Solutions, a new mid-sized contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), has officially launched …
