Pfizer Announces Multi-Million-Dollar Pearl River Expansion

by M. C. Millman

Pfizer plans to invest $470M to expand its Pearl River campus over the next three years. The expansion will be used to develop the technology behind the messenger RNA tech used in Pfizer's COVID shot. The first step will be to expand the facility with a new 260,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art lab building. The pharmaceutical giant also plans to take on 150 new hires. This will bring the total headcount of those employed at the Pearl River facility to over 1100.

Pfizer's Covid vaccine has nearly doubled the company's annual revenue, creating over $36 billion in 2021 sales. Pfizer now wants to replicate the success of mRNA by applying it to other disease areas, such as influenza vaccines, those for other viral pathogens,  and Pfizer's experimental vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus that presently uses a more traditional technology. 

Pfizer plans to break ground in the first half of 2024 and aims to complete the new lab's construction in the first quarter of 2026.