DURHAM, N.C. – December 15, 2021 –Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced today the opening of a new, state-of-the-art clinical manufacturing facility in Durham, NC. The facility expands Pfizer’s end-to-end capabilities in gene therapy and builds on the Company’s existing footprint in North Carolina, which includes more than 3,600 employees across sites in the state. The Durham facility is part of an $800 million investment over the past six years to build three scalable, state-of-the-art gene therapy manufacturing facilities to support Pfizer’s continued investment in gene therapy research, development, and manufacturing.

The Durham facility will be home to Pfizer’s BioTherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences Group, which is responsible for the manufacturing and analytical release of clinical supplies for Pfizer’s gene therapy and biologics portfolio. The facility is expected to create more than 50 new jobs in the coming years, in addition to the approximately 40 employees who will relocate from Pfizer’s Chapel Hill, NC, site.

“Gene therapy represents the next wave of innovation for patients living with rare diseases, for whom there are limited treatment options currently available,” said Paul Mensah, Vice President, BioTherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences at Pfizer. “Today represents the next step in strengthening Pfizer’s in-house gene therapy capabilities and underscores the unique ability, expertise, and resources we have to guide gene therapy through the entire development and manufacturing process and deliver this potentially life-changing technology to patients.”  

Pfizer’s current gene therapy portfolio includes three late-stage clinical programs for hemophilia A, hemophilia B, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), as well as 12 preclinical programs investigating potential treatments for rare cardiology, endocrine, hematology, metabolic and neurology diseases with approximately one to two first-in-patient clinical study starts anticipated each year.

Pfizer’s $800 million investment to build three scalable, state-of-the-art gene therapy manufacturing facilities includes 300,000 square feet of capacity, one of the largest in-house gene therapy manufacturing facilities, to support multiple gene therapy medicines. The three facilities demonstrate Pfizer’s deep commitment to rare disease patients and gene therapy. The Company has a total bioreactor manufacturing capacity of 22,000 liters, (2,000 liters / bioreactor x 11 bioreactors) using state-of-the art single-use manufacturing technology, scaled to serve the entire market for even the gene therapy indications requiring the administration of the highest doses of gene therapy vectors. These investments have given Pfizer one of the largest production capacities for gene therapy vectors globally. The single-use technology also allows more scalable expansion of manufacturing capacity over time.

The 85,500 square foot Durham facility is also an important part of Pfizer’s worldwide R&D network which includes locations in La Jolla, California; Boulder, Colorado; St Louis, Missouri; Pearl River, New York; Groton, Connecticut; and Cambridge and Andover, Massachusetts.

To learn more about Pfizer’s commitment to gene therapy, visit https://www.pfizer.com/science/research-development/gene-therapy/pioneering-breakthroughs
. 
About Pfizer: Breakthroughs That Change Patients’ Lives
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products, including innovative medicines and vaccines. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 170 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at www.Pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.Pfizer.com and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.

Disclosure Notice
The information contained in this release is as of December 15, 2021. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments. 

This release contains forward-looking information about Pfizer’s gene therapy manufacturing facilities, including the investment in a new facility in Durham, N.C., and Pfizer’s gene therapy pipeline portfolio, including their potential benefits, that involves substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development; risks related to the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the investment and the new facility; risks related to Pfizer’s business and prospects, adverse developments in Pfizer’s markets, or adverse developments in the U.S. or global capital markets, credit markets, regulatory environment or economies generally; the impact of COVID-19 on our business, operations and financial results; and competitive developments.  

A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof captioned “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results”, as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com.