Pfizer building $465M sterile injectables plant at its Michigan site

Pfizer has committed to building a massive, $465 million sterile manufacturing plant at its site in Michigan that is expected to add 450 new jobs by the time it is fully operational.

Pfizer said on Monday that it expects to break ground next spring on the 400,000-square-foot facility in Portage, Michigan, with construction slated to be complete in 2021 and production to begin in 2024.

The plant will include multiple self-contained modular manufacturing lines, allowing the manufacturing line in each module to be entirely separate from all other manufacturing lines, Pfizer said.

"This investment is part of our overall plan announced in January to invest approximately $5 billion in U.S.-based capital projects as a result of the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," Pfizer CEO Ian Read said in a release.

Locally, the company has also asked for an industrial facilities tax exemption, which will cut in half the property taxes it would have to pay for the next 12 years.

Pfizer said its Portage site is one of its primary facilities for sterile injectables, liquids and semisolid medicines, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients. It currently manufactures more than 150 products. Its biggest product is Solu-Medrol, an injectable anti-inflammatory medicine. The 450 jobs it says it will add are in addition to the 2,200 employees already working at the site.