Dive Brief:
- GSK invested up to $800 million to expand its Marietta, Pennsylvania, facility, its largest U.S. manufacturing investment to date, according to an Oct. 24 press release.
- The site will add facilities to produce sterile vaccines, medicines and clinical trial drugs, doubling its size and capacity. The expansion will also add over 200 jobs, the release stated.
- Construction will begin this year, with drug substance production expected by 2027 and drug product manufacturing by 2028.
Dive Insight:
The GSK facilities will feature several advanced technologies, including digital twins, robotics, smart utility and electrical system monitoring and controls and artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance and digital scheduling. The facilities will also be LEED Silver certified for sustainability.
The state of Pennsylvania is supporting this expansion with a $21 million investment.
The Marietta facility is GSK’s first in the U.S., packing approximately 100 million doses annually for the U.S. market and supplying more than 85 countries. Currently, one in four Americans are administered a vaccine supplied from the UK-based company’s Marietta location, according to the release.
Since 2017, GSK has invested nearly $1.3 billion in U.S. manufacturing. The company operates six manufacturing sites in the U.S. — two in Pennsylvania and other plants in Montana, Maryland, North Carolina and Boston, a GSP spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive in an email.
Even as the drugmaker invests in its manufacturing footprint, however, the company is seeing a continuous decline in demand for its vaccines, including Shingrix and Arexvy, according to its Q3 earnings call. Q3 vaccine sales were down 15% year over year.
“All of these dynamics were broadly reflected in the performance of our regions, with good growth internationally, and the U.S., unsurprisingly, was more impacted by the lower vaccine demand we saw this quarter,” Chief Commercial Officer Luke Miels said on the Q3 earnings call.
Miels also attributed the decline in U.S. sales due to a prioritization of COVID-19 vaccines, he said on the call. Additionally, GSK has been seeing first channel inventory reductions and faced challenges “activating harder to reach consumers,” i.e. people aged 50 or over, Miels said on a Q2 call in July.
“We've more than 70 million adults that are still unvaccinated and recommended to receive our vaccine. We're focusing our resources and marketing content on targeting these eligible potential patients,” the CCO said.
On Oct. 9, the company also agreed to settle over 80,000 lawsuits for up to $2.2 billion for its Zantac drug. The lawsuits claimed that a discontinued version of the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, according to multiple reports.
Operating profits took a hit due to the lawsuits, down 86% year over year , according to the earnings report. Still, GSK’s Q3 revenue was up 5% YOY to about $10.4 billion.
