Pfizer announced that it will further strengthen its commitment to United States manufacturing with a $120 million investment at its Kalamazoo, Michigan, facility, enabling U.S.-based production in support of its COVID-19 oral treatment, PAXLOVIDTM (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets). The investment will expand the production of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and registered starting materials (RSMs) used in the manufacture of nirmatrelvir, a novel main protease (Mpro) inhibitor originating in Pfizer’s laboratories, which will create more than 250 additional high-skilled jobs at Pfizer’s Kalamazoo site. This investment is another major step in Pfizer’s effort to bring more key biopharmaceutical manufacturing to the U.S., increasing Pfizer’s capability to produce and supply treatments and medicines for patients in the U.S. and around the world.
RSMs are the raw materials that are chemically converted into API, which is the active ingredient in a medicine. Producing PAXLOVID requires a significant amount of manufacturing capacity across all aspects of the production process. To date, Pfizer has shipped 12 million courses of PAXLOVID across 37 countries, including 5 million courses shipped to the U.S., and has manufactured almost 17 million treatment courses total. The significant investment being made in stateside API and RSM production for nirmatrelvir will allow Pfizer to increase supply capacity for PAXLOVID as needed to help meet global demand. With this new investment, Kalamazoo will be among the world's largest producers of API, with the capacity to produce 1,200 metric tons annually.