AUSTRALIA — Bridgewest Group, a global private investment firm focused on developing companies in life sciences, software, and deep technology, has bought the sterile injectable manufacturing facility of Pfizer (Perth) Proprietary Ltd., a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc.

Located in Bentley, a Perth suburb in Western Australia, the cGMP plant is said to be a sterile injectable manufacturing facility with approval from regulatory bodies including the FDA, TGA, EU, and others.

It supplies its drug products, including specialty oncology drug products to over 90 countries across the world.

According to Bridgewest, the facility has extensive blow fill seal (BFS) capacity for producing sterile injectable essential drug products.

Additionally, the acquisition also includes a range of drug products from Pfizer to market and expand globally.

Bridgewest Group acquired Hospira Adelaide, an Adelaide-based producer of microbial medicinal substances, in 2020, and now operates as BioCina.

It has been in business as a contract development manufacturing company (CDMO). According to the investment firm, BioCina has now upgraded the Adelaide site to include pDNA and mRNA manufacturing capabilities.

Bridgewest Group’s private equity portfolio spans multiple industries, and the firm entered the life sciences sector in 2005 with the formation of BioDuro-Sundia.

Bridgewest Group invests in a wide range of industries, including medical devices, cell and gene therapy, and medication discovery and development.

Pfizer’s departure from Perth comes at a critical juncture in the company’s plans to spin off its struggling Upjohn generics unit into a merger with Mylan that is expected to close later this year.

Meanwhile, the company’s sterile injectables portfolio has only recently turned a corner, following a series of disastrous manufacturing setbacks that had left much of the drugmaker’s portfolio undersupplied for years.

In April, CEO Albert Bourla stated that investments in remediation and modernized manufacturing enabled the company to stock 90% of its portfolio.

Pfizer distributed seven and a half times the baseline demand of 30 of its sterile injectable products in March to cover back orders, including the shipment of ten drugs at more than double demand, according to Bourla.

Pfizer delivered sterile injectables at more than five times demand in some cases, demonstrating the drugmaker’s newly discovered ability to ship its portfolio at scale.

Overall, Pfizer’s sterile injectables portfolio revenue increased 15% year on year in the first quarter.

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