Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Outsourcing

WuXi STA breaks ground in Delaware, without drug chemicals

First phase of Chinese firm’s project will include only finished-drug production

by Rick Mullin
August 24, 2022 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 100, Issue 30

A line of people at a groundbreaking, shovels in hand, helmets on heads.
Credit: WuXi STA
State and local officials join WuXi STA executives at the groundbreaking for the Chinese firm's manufacturing campus in Middletown, Delaware.

WuXi STA, the small-molecule drugmaking arm of China’s WuXi AppTec, broke ground earlier this month on a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Middletown, Delaware.

The project, a 75-hectare campus announced last year, is a major push for WuXi STA into the US market, where the company currently operates a smaller facility in San Diego. The new facility received a $19 million grant from the state of Delaware and is expected to create approximately 500 jobs by 2026.

But the company’s plans in Delaware, at least for the first phase, no longer include production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)—the chemical hearts of small-molecule drugs—which were a key component of the facility when it was announced last year.

WuXi STA tells C&EN that the current scope of the project is “drug product development and manufacturing as well as packaging and distribution.” Drug product is an industry term for a formulated pill or injection.

“To me it sounds like they are reevaluating and looking at what they need, which might make sense,” says James Bruno, president of the consulting firm Chemical and Pharmaceutical Solutions. “It seems everything they are doing [in Delaware] is around drug product.”

Bruno notes that the company may not want the expense of adding API production in Delaware on top of other large investments. Last year WuXi STA acquired a drug product plant in Switzerland from Bristol Myers Squibb. And WuXi AppTec recently announced a $1.4 billion, 10-year project to build a research and manufacturing facility in Singapore. Various other sites, including the future Singapore plant, are options for API production, Bruno notes.

The demand for US-produced APIs, which reached a fever pitch at the height of the pandemic, may have decreased in urgency over the past year, a shift that could impact investment decisions, Bruno says. “I get a lot of clients telling me they’d like to [have API produced] in the US,” Bruno says. “But they’re willing to take Europe.”

Advertisement

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.