Jubilant Pharmova arm to invest $300 million in US by FY28 to double sterile injectable capacity

Jubilant HollisterStier LLC, an arm of Jubilant Pharmova Ltd, will invest $300 million by FY28 in the US to double its sterile injectable manufacturing capacity, with President Donald Trump's tariffs accelerating its original plans, company CEO - CDMO Sterile Injectables, Chris Preti, said on Friday.

The company has launched its new sterile fill and finish line -- the third at its Spokane manufacturing facility in Washington, US, set up at an investment of $132 million, Preti told PTI.

"Our overall investment is almost $300 million at our Spokane facility. This is the first of the two phases ... This $132 million is phase one, which is our third line," he said.

Preti further said, "This will bring an additional 50% of capacity in the US that is available now and then, the additional investment, totalling $300 million in all, will be actually completed by the end of fiscal year 2028, which will bring on another 50% of additional capacity." On the company's current capacity, he said, "Today, we produce approximately 50 million units of vials annually. In the future, when we're done with both of these expansions, we'll be actually producing approximately 100 million vials annually."

Preti said the investment in the US for manufacturing has been primarily driven by the demand-supply gap and the need from the company's customers to consolidate the supply chain in the country, while the Trump tariffs have accelerated the plans.

"What I would say is the tariff situation created a fortuitous or amplified the situation, because now there's even more of a desire for US manufacturing, or onshore manufacturing in the US, or from an India perspective, offshoring manufacturing outside of Asia into the US," he said when asked if Trump tariffs have accelerated the company's manufacturing investment plans in the US.

Elaborating, he said, "A few years ago, Jubilant Pharmova strategically decided we want to build up this capacity, because there was a need in the US marketplace... a 700 million shortfall in terms of demand versus supply, as well as a desire for companies to come to the US. So we made this decision strategically two years ago.".

Citing a McKinsey study, he said in the demand for global sterile vials, "there's a delta between demand and supply of approximately 700 million units. So 6.8 billion is demand, 6.1 million supply", and two years ago, there was a big push in the US and a lot of companies consolidated and converted the capacities to pre-filled syringes.

"Jubilant Pharmova realised this strategically that there was going to be a glut, or a need, a specific need in the marketplace for sterile vial capacity. So we entered this project a few years ago, and this project will allow us to actually double our capacity, " he said.

Preti said after the company's success in scaling up manufacturing of "Covid therapeutics" a few years ago it was able to launch a project of USD 300 million with a grant of $150 million from the US government to double its capacity from its existing facility.

On the opportunity in the US, he said, "Each unit is around five patient doses. So this is approximately 350 million patient doses out there... almost the entire US population will receive a dose of a medicine or a vaccine that was manufactured from a Spokane facility. So huge opportunity for us in terms of meeting the customer's needs for this additional capacity that the customers were desiring.".

Jubilant HollisterStier is Contract Development & Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) specialising in comprehensive sterile fill-finish, lyophilization and ophthalmic manufacturing services. It has advanced facilities in Spokane, Washington, and Montreal, Quebec.

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