Glaxo Wellcome Sells Greenville Drug Production Facility

Glaxo Wellcome's Greenville, North Carolina, USA pharmaceuticalproduction facility is being divested to US firm Catalytica Inc. The terms of the deal are not disclosed, but Catalytica will also issue new shares to GW amounting to an equity stake in the company of less than 5%. In addition, it will enter into a five-year manufacturing contract with GW for the production of the firm's prescription drug products.

The new, tentative agreement also provides for GW to receive a share of the profits from the new owner's production of medicines in the Greenville site's sterile manufacturing facility.

For Catalytica, says its chairman and chief executive James Cusumano, it is the "culmination of a search for additional capacity, which we can offer our existing pharmaceuticals partners, and gives us room to add new partners." Under the terms of the manufacturing agreement, Catalytica expects potential revenues estimated at $800 million. It also has production or product development agreements with major pharmaceutical firms including Pfizer, Merck & Co, Novartis and Pharmacia & Upjohn.