CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new version of the Prevnar childhood vaccine that federal regulators approved Feb. 24 will be partly produced at the company’s drug factory in Sanford.
Pfizer acquired the plant, which employs about 1,000 people, when it bought Wyeth in October. The facility makes the current version of Prevnar and will be involved in two steps of producing Prevnar 13. Other steps will be handled at different Pfizer sites, spokesman Rick Chambers said.
"At this time, there is no plan for changing staff based on today’s announcement," Chambers wrote in an e-mail to the News & Observer in Charlotte.
But additional work from production of the new vaccine doesn’t end uncertainty for employees at the Sanford plant. Pfizer is still reviewing its manufacturing operations as it seeks more ways to cut costs following the Wyeth takeover. The company plans to provide an update on that review as soon as next month.
"At this point there are no decisions made on any of the plants in our global network," Chambers wrote.
Last fall, Pfizer cut about 170 researchers in Sanford and Morrisville as part of a larger streamlining of its research operations.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Prevnar 13 for prevention of additional strains of illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis. It’s the first new Pfizer product to win FDA approval since its Wyeth purchase.
Analysts expect the vaccine to eventually generate more than $5 billion a year in revenue, and become Pfizer’s biggest product.
The older version of Prevnar generated $2.72 billion in sales during 2008, the latest figures available. Pfizer has said it will pull the older version off the market as Prevnar 13 is approved and introduced worldwide, Bloomberg News reported.
