Pfizer Inc. today opened its new $236 million, 295,000-square-foot research and development facility in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Pfizer will use the R&D center to develop manufacturing processes, dosage forms and analytics to create clinical and commercial products for therapeutic areas such as oncology, rare diseases, internal medicine, inflammation and immunology, and vaccines. The center will house Pfizer’s BioTherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences group, which will work with partners to improve Pfizer’s biologics, vaccines and gene therapy portfolio.
The facility, located at 875 W. Chesterfield Parkway, will house about 450 workers, including engineers, biologists, biochemists, analytical chemists and pharmacy specialists. Pfizer officials said they anticipate adding about 80 new jobs at the site.
“The Chesterfield site is an important expansion of our R&D capabilities and is designed to support the development of potential new medicines and vaccines,” Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer and president, worldwide research, development and medical, said in a statement.
The new R&D center will also manufacture plasmids for gene therapy and develop gene therapy manufacturing technologies.
“We are pleased that Pfizer has chosen to invest in Missouri and grow its presence here within the life sciences community in the Midwest,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement. “This is an important facility that will benefit the Chesterfield community and help improve the lives of many Missourians as well as patients around the world.”
On Wednesday, Pfizer opened a new 175,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Andover, Massachusetts, that will be used for clinical and commercial manufacturing and development of complex biologics and vaccines.