Pfizer Inc. will invest $350 million in
eastern China on a plant for biotechnology drugs, bolstering its presence in
the world’s second largest pharmaceutical market despite slowing economic
growth in the country and rising pressure on prices for medicines.
The new facility in eastern
Hangzhou city is expected to be completed in 2018 and will manufacture
biologics, or complex medicines made from living organisms, as well as
biosimilars for patients in China and across the world, Pfizer said in an
e-mailed statement Tuesday.
Biosimilars are highly
similar versions of biologic drugs that usually go through a complex
manufacturing process. Making them requires greater precision than generics
that copy relatively more straightforward chemical-based treatments.
The products from the plant
will address major public health concerns such as oncology, the New York-based
drugmaker said, without naming specific drugs. Biologics are underutilized in
China, accounting for 4 percent of medicines prescribed in the country,
compared with 22 percent in the U.S., according to the company.
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