With a productive working relationship between the two companies already well established, Bora Pharmaceuticals is renewing a $250 million global manufacturing agreement with British drugmaker GSK. The deal, which covers a five-year term, will see the CDMO chip in on hundreds of products across an array of therapeutic areas.
The production tie-up covers end-to-end manufacturing services for more than 20 commercial GSK product lines and over 335 individual products in indications spanning HIV, malaria, pneumonia, parasitic infections, depression, migraine, acne, eczema and psoriasis, Bora said in a Feb. 23 press release.
Much of the contract manufacturing work will revolve around Bora’s Mississauga, Ontario, facility in Canada, and the collaboration will also grant GSK access to additional sites within Bora's network, including a new oral solid-dose plant in Minnesota.
The partnership builds on a longstanding relationship between GSK and Bora, with Bora picking up its Mississauga facility from the British Big Pharma in 2020.
As it stands, GSK is the largest pharma partner operating at Bora’s Ontario site, according to the CDMO.
With the deal, GSK will “continue to leverage Bora’s experienced development teams and global commercial manufacturing infrastructure” to maintain an uninterrupted supply of key GSK medicines, Bora noted in its release.
“From day one, this partnership was built on mutual trust and a shared commitment to quality,” Bora CEO Bobby Sheng explained in a statement.
“Reaching nearly a decade of collaboration with GSK and committing through 2030 speaks to our shared focus on value and reliability," he continued. "We’re grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting GSK’s mission and the patients who rely on these therapies.”
Bora has been busy building out its Mississauga site since it acquired the plant in late 2020.
Investments in flexible manufacturing technology have enabled the site to support 32 clients, advance 61 products and complete more than 400 project and development batches, according to Bora, which described the plant as a "strategic manufacturing partner for leading global pharmaceutical companies."
The CDMO’s site in Canada occupies 170,000 square feet and offers manufacturing, processing and commercialization services for a range of prescription and over-the-counter products, including oral solid-dose, liquid and semi-solid therapeutics, according to Bora’s website. The spot is equipped with 18 “highly configurable” manufacturing modules and packaging capabilities for tablets, capsules, nasal sprays, creams and more.
Elsewhere across Bora’s North American footprint, the company operates facilities in Baltimore, Maryland, and Maple Grove, Minnesota. The CDMO’s four other manufacturing spots are spread across Taiwan.
Bora has been on a speedy growth track in North America in recent years. Last summer, the company announced an upgrade to the manufacturing and packaging capacity at its Maple Grove site, which it picked up through its $210 million Upsher-Smith buyout in 2024.
Meanwhile, Bora recently acquired its first sterile manufacturing facility in Baltimore through a 2024 agreement with Emergent BioSolutions.