As Horizon works to beef up drug sales, CEO Walbert maps a big manufacturing expansion in Ireland, 350 new jobs

2022-08-29

疫苗并购

Horizon Therapeutics is planning a big expansion at its drug development and manufacturing site in Ireland.

Right in the wake of mapping out plans to spur bigger sales of Tepezza after a disappointing launch, Horizon chief Tim Walbert says they’ve blueprinted a 320,000-square-foot expansion to the 44,000-square-foot facility they acquired in Waterford last summer for $65 million. And they’ll tie that to up to 350 new hires as Ireland enjoys a fresh surge of deals in the drug manufacturing sector.

Horizon’s acquisition a little more than a year ago came with a pact committing the economic development arm of the Irish government to provide more land for a build-out, as needed. And they’re wrapping up talks with Irish and FDA regulators for the sterile fill-finish ops they plan to put into operation next year.

Abbott pumps $450M+ into new Ireland-based manufacturing site project and hiring spree

There are no set plans on exactly which drugs Horizon plans to manufacture in Ireland, but the biotech has a set of approved and experimental rare disease drugs in the portfolio, and the company says it plans to manufacture both in the new facility.

Right now the big task at Horizon has been centered on the thyroid eye disease drug Tepezza, where Walbert and the executive crew have been grappling with a dip in sales, which they initially blamed on the Omicron outbreak. That unexpected drop was supposed to resolve itself, but didn’t.

“(T)he recovery didn’t progress as fast as we expected, indicating to us that Omicron wasn’t the only dynamic impacting the business,” Walbert told analysts in the Q2 call. “After digging deeper, we better understood those dynamics, and we made several adjustments and are deploying more resources in a targeted manner to drive short and long-term growth of Tepezza.”

Merck KGaA pumps €440M into expanding and constructing Irish manufacturing facilities

Those strategic shifts include shaking up the sales management in charge and adding 60 new reps while exploring a European launch to help drive additional revenue. And he sounds determined to make up for lost ground on the rollout.

Horizon has also experienced some trouble with manufacturing on that front as well. The big multinational CDMO Catalent had to shift ops away from Tepezza in the spring of 2021 to support the rapid expansion of Covid-19 vaccines Covid-19 vaccines. That created a temporary shortage that reportedly affected some 2,000 patients.

A spokesperson for Horizon, though, says that the expansion has nothing to do with a supply issue. He added:

This is part of our long-term strategy as we grow as a global company to invest in our manufacturing capabilities – when we purchased the existing drug product (fill and finish) facility from EirGen last year, we had the optionality to expand on available adjacent land. We are planning to add a drug substance manufacturing facility to the existing drug product facility and both facilities are expected to be used for our on market rare disease biologics as well as development-stage medicines.

Ireland has long focused on drug manufacturing to build its economy. And it’s paid off with some big new deals, including a $450 million-plus investment from Abbott. That followed Merck KGaA’s €440 million plan to beef up its operations in Ireland, while adding 370 jobs.

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