Amid uncertainty for its vaccine division, CSL is growing the footprint of its bread-and-butter plasma therapies business by pledging a capital investment of about $1.5 billion for U.S.-based manufacturing.
The Australian biopharma giant plans to “expand its U.S. presence” over the next five years, creating “hundreds of high-quality American jobs,” CSL announced in a Nov. 18 release. The project aims to strengthen the domestic manufacturing capabilities of CSL's plasma-derived therapies division and bolster the U.S. supply chain for the medicines.
While its exact plans haven’t been specified, the company said the move reflects its commitment to address the growing clinical need for long-term supply of immunoglobulin, or antibodies found in plasma.
“The U.S. is the world’s leading source for plasma, the main component of plasma derived therapies,” CSL CEO Paul McKenzie explained in the release. “These important medicines are often the most effective or only therapies available for many rare or serious diseases. By expanding our onshore production capacity in the U.S., we are deepening our commitment to patient care, creating high-quality jobs and driving innovation in the U.S.”
The investment remains subject to approval by the company’s board of directors, CSL notes.
Pharma giants from around the globe have pledged large U.S. manufacturing investments since the Trump administration began threatening to impose tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. British Big Pharma GSK recently unveiled a five-year, $30 billion planned investment in U.S. R&D and manufacturing, while Roche, Sanofi, Novartis and others have also promised similar multibillion-dollar outlays.
CSL’s plasma therapies unit, CSL Behring, is headquartered in Pennsylvania. Since 2018, the drugmaker has poured more than $3 billion into its U.S. operations and touts a total U.S. head count of nearly 19,000, making up about 65% of its total workforce, according to the company.
CSL Behring, which includes CSL Plasma, operates hundreds of plasma donation centers in the U.S. Besides operating a large cutting-edge manufacturing plant in Kankakee, Illinois, the company also maintains a plasma fractionation facility in Australia.
CSL Behring’s plasma-derived therapies, specifically its immunoglobulin therapies, make up most of CSL’s sales (PDF) and have recently been keeping the larger company afloat as influenza vaccine unit CSL Seqirus contends with plummeting flu vaccination rates in the U.S.
In August, the company moved to part ways with CSL Seqirus under a restructuring plan aimed at saving $500 million to $550 million progressively over the next three years. Separating out CSL Seqirus would leave the two remaining businesses, CSL Behring and CSL Vifor, to combine medical and commercial functions and maintain “leading market positions in multiple rare and serious diseases,” the company said at the time.
However, CSL’s chairman Brian McNamee recently explained (PDF) that “heightened volatility in the current US influenza vaccine market” has caused the company to conclude its “previously proposed demerger timing will not fully capture Seqirus’ value potential.”