GlaxoSmithKline Ramps Up Hiring at Zebulon Plant to Develop Next-Gen Asthma Drug
August 7, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
RALEIGH, N.C. – GlaxoSmithKline will hire more than 100 people as it ramps up production of its next generation asthma drug Ellipta.
The new hires, expected to occur over the next year, will take the plant, which lies on the outskirts of Raleigh, close to 1,000 total employees. in-Pharmatechnologist.com reported this morning. The site currently employs 850. The company’s North American Headquarters in nearby Research Triangle Park employs about 4,500 people.
The new hires are needed due to the company’s addition of another assembly line to produce several of the company’s asthma drugs, including Advair Diskus, Ellipta, Breo and Anora. In total the site produces more than 30 GSK brands, the Triangle Business Journal said. The popular asthma drug Advair, which has dropped in sales over the past year, takes up the bulk of production. Production at the plant runs 24 hours per day, five days a week. In a shift, four workers can produce about 14,000 Advair Diskus devices, the Journal said, about 37 million devices annually. Sales of Advair dropped 6 percent, GSK said in its latest quarterly revenue reports.
The Zebulon site has been expected to begin manufacturing the pain-reliving drug Panadol, an acetaminophen tablet sold mostly in Europe. The Charlotte Observer reported.
GSK’s stock is down slightly this morning from its opening price of $44.66 per share.
Earlier this year, GSK, which has had a manufacturing presence in eastern North Carolina for more than 30 years, expanded the Zebulon facility by about 65,000 square feet to accommodate a new assembly line to manufacture Ellipta. The new addition is expected to be ready for use in 2017.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two new drugs, Breo and Anoro, late last year to provide a once daily treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In May the FDA approved Breo Ellipta for the treatment of asthma in adults. Glaxo said they were pleased at the decision, but noted the drug is not indicated for or the relief of acute bronchospasm.
Analysts have estimated that sales of Breo Ellipta could reach $750 million by 2020. The drug is a fixed-dose combination of the inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) fluticasone furoate (FF) and the long-acting beta2-agonist (LABA) vilanterol (VI).
Glaxo initially filed a new drug application to use Breo Ellipta as an asthma treatment in June 2014. Because the LABA class of drugs has been linked with asthma-related deaths in the past, the FDA panel recommended that a large LABA safety trial should be required in adults and in youths 12 to 17 year of age, similar to ongoing LABA safety trials being conducted as an FDA Post-Marketing Requirement by each of the manufacturers of LABA containing asthma treatments, including GlaxoSmithKline 's Advair, AstraZeneca PLC 's Symbicort and Merck & Co. 's Dulera and Foradil, in both adolescents and adults, GlaxoSmithKline said following the panel’s ruling. LABA drugs already come with warning labels noting the risks of taking such a medication.