GSK is investing $800 million in drug expansion in Pennsylvania

Diving certificate:

• GSK invested up to $800 million to expand its plant in Marietta, Pennsylvania, the largest U.S. manufacturing investment to date, one said Press release from October 24th.
• The site will be expanded to include facilities for the production of sterile vaccines, medicines and drugs for clinical trials, doubling its size and capacity. The expansion will also create over 200 jobs, the release said.
• Construction will begin this year, production of drug substances is expected in 2027 and production of drug products is expected in 2028.

Insight into the dive:

The GSK facilities will feature several advanced technologies, including digital twins, robotics, intelligent monitoring and control of utility and electrical systems, and artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance and digital planning. The facilities will also be LEED Silver certified for sustainability.

The state of Pennsylvania supports this expansion with a $21 million investment.

The Marietta facility is GSK's first in the United States. It packages approximately 100 million doses annually for the U.S. market and supplies more than 85 countries. According to the press release, one in four Americans is currently receiving a vaccine, delivered from the British company's Marietta site.

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 additional plants in Montana, Maryland, North Carolina and Boston, a GSP spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive in an email.

Although the drugmaker is investing in its manufacturing sites, the company is seeing a continued decline in demand for its vaccines, including Shingrix and Arexvy, according to its third-quarter earnings release. Vaccine sales in the third quarter were decreased by 15% year-on-year.

“All of these dynamics were largely reflected in the performance of our regions, with good international growth, and not surprisingly, the U.S. was more impacted by the lower vaccine demand we saw this quarter,” said Chief Commercial Officer Luke Miels on the third quarter results Call.

Miels also attributed the decline in U.S. sales to the prioritization of COVID-19 vaccines, he said on the conference call. Additionally, GSK experienced inventory reductions in its first channel and faced the challenge of “harder reaching consumers who are 50 years old or older,” Miels said in a second-quarter conference call in July.

“We have more than 70 million adults who are not yet vaccinated and are recommended to receive our vaccine. We are focusing our resources and marketing content on targeting these appropriate potential patients,” the CCO said.

On October 9, the company also agreed to settle over 80,000 lawsuits for up to $2.2 billion over its drug Zantac. The lawsuits alleged that a discontinued version of the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer several reports.

According to the earnings report, operating profit suffered an 86% year-over-year decline due to the lawsuits. Still, GSK's third-quarter revenue rose 5% year over year to about $10.4 billion.