A Day of Reckoning for Aging Facilities: Is It Time to Invest in Change?

25 Sep 2015

With its acquisition of Hospira, Pfizer joins the ranks of pharmaceutical companies struggling to eke out a profit from aging sterile injectables facilities without shutting them down for badly needed upgrades for fear of triggering additional drug shortages. Meanwhile, flexible, modular next-generation facilities that could add capacity where needed are on the horizon.

The quality troubles that Pfizer acquired with Hospira this month are symptoms of an aging, shortage-prone sterile injectables infrastructure that the pharmaceutical industry is preparing to resolve with new, more agile manufacturing facilities.

Pfizer is piloting a modular oral solids manufacturing system that could be adapted for sterile injectables even as other manufacturers...