Pfizer facility goes to Abraxis

Abraxis BioScience has agreed to buy Pfizer's Cruce Davila manufacturing facility in Barceloneta, P.R., which is designed to produce injectable drugs, protein-based biologics, and metered-dose inhalers. Some 400 to 500 people will be employed in the production of Abraxane-brand albumin-bound paclitaxel for the treatment of breast cancer. The Cruce Davila site also includes an active pharmaceutical ingredient plant that will be leased back to Pfizer for the production of celecoxib, the active ingredient in the COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex. By 2008, Pfizer plans to have pared back its global capacity by 25% as part of a manufacturing restructuring.