Pfizer will add 250 new jobs at Kalamazoo plant

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that they will add 250 new jobs to their Portage manufacturing facility. Additionally, this is part of a $120 million investment to boost the production of anit-COVID-19 pill Paxlovid. Moreover, Pfizer is aiming to produce 120 million courses of Paxlovid in 2022.

Manufacturing of Paxlovid

Pfizer’s factory in Kalamozoo County will become the only manufacturer of Paxlovid in United States. Pfizer says it has manufactured more than 5.5 million packs of its oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid. Alongside, they have shipped 1.3 million courses in United States. “Pfizer Global Supply has made the impossible possible, making billions of vaccine doses and now millions of treatment courses to help battle the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. By increasing production at our Michigan facility, we are both helping patients around the world and expanding important manufacturing innovation to the U.S. This investment builds upon our $5 billion of investments across our manufacturing and distribution portfolio since 2017 to support the ongoing growth of U.S. manufacturing leadership.” Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Pfizer said in his statement.

Pfizer’s announcement indicates the company is planning to dramatically increase production of Paxlovid in the near future.  The pharma giant said that studies revealed an 88% decline in COVID-19-related hospitalization or death for adults using Paxlovid.

Employment opportunities

In addition, Pfizer’s latest investment will add 250 new workers. They will employ scientists, packaging and logistics experts, active pharmaceutical ingredient operators, engineers, quality assurance personnel and lab assistants. Hence, the company’s total workforce at Portage plant will go up to 3,600 workers. They are looking to hire these new workers by 2023.  “The incremental investment in Kalamazoo will allow us to expand our capacity and give us more redundancy and capability here in the U.S. Our Kalamazoo, Michigan, site is our largest plant globally. It’s also our largest active pharmaceutical ingredient plant globally. We’re really proud of the capability of this site.” Mike McDermott, the company’s chief global supply officer said.

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