AbbVie to build $320M plant in Singapore

PHOTO/rick saia AbbVie's Worcester research facility employs roughly 700 people.

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AbbVie has announced plans to build a $320 million manufacturing plant in Singapore, its first in Asia.

The pharmaceutical giant said the facility is slated to employ 250 and will be used to make drugs the company is currently developing.

The exact location of the facility hasn’t been determined but it is slated to be fully operational by 2019. The Chicago-based company also employs 700 at a research and development facility in Worcester.

“Our presence in Singapore will help assure geographic balance and continuity of product supply as well as increased capacity to deliver on our growing biologics and small molecule product pipelines,” Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, senior vice president of operations, said in a statement.

This site will be AbbVie’s first to combine biologics (making drugs from biological matter rather than chemicals) with small molecule active drug substance manufacturing. In addition to popular arthritis drug Humira, AbbVie is developing new treatments for cancer, liver disease and hepatitis C.

Singapore will join AbbVie’s 12 other manufacturing sites in the United States, Europe and Puerto Rico. The company also employs 120 in Singapore, and has research and development facilities in Tokyo and Shanghai.