BioPharma

Biogen breaks ground on $1.4B Switzerland plant

Building cost estimates for Biogen's new Switzerland plant are $400 million higher than previously announced - despite the company's 11 percent reduction in workforce last year.

construction workers hearing lossCambridge biotech giant Biogen broke ground this past week on a new, $1.4 billion manufacturing plant in northern Switzerland, said Adam Koppel, vice president of the company’s corporate development and strategy.

Koppel, speaking on a panel at this week’s Harvard Business School Healthcare Conference, said the enormity of this plant investment is reflective of Biogen’s commitment to pursuing its Alzheimer’s disease strategy. Of course, the company announced last April it plans to spend $2.5 billion developing drugs for the disease.

News of the Switzerland plant’s development first came out last July, when the price tag was placed $1 billion. Koppel cited a higher figure – $1.4 billion. This $400 million increase comes on the heels of a rough 2015 for Biogen – in which it cut 11 percent of its workforce, or 880 jobs. Its Alzheimer’s route is considered rather risky, a sink or swim program for the biotech.

That said, Biogen is expected to add 400 new jobs when it opens its Switzerland plant. The plant’s aim would be to triple Biogen’s capacity to develop biologics – preparing for future demand of these drugs, the Boston Globe reported at the time.

Outside of this Luterbach, Switzerland plant, Biogen has three others: One in Cambridge, that manufactures its multiple sclerosis and hemophilia drugs, one in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, and one in Hillerod, Denmark. Work on the plant is expected to be completed by 2019, according to Swiss publication Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Highways Agency]

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