GlaxoSmithKline offloads Polish plant with 700 workers to French CDMO Delpharm

With plans to take its consumer healthcare joint venture with Pfizer public in the next few years, GlaxoSmithKline has been in Marie Kondo mode for some of its expansive global assets. After cutting a Canadian plant with 400 workers earlier this year, GSK is now hiving off an even bigger facility in Poland. 

GSK has sold its Poznań, Poland, manufacturing site to French CDMO Delpharm as the British drugmaker continues its global asset sell-off plans, the companies said this week. The plant’s 700 workers will move to Delpharm with the sale.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and a Delpharm spokeswoman declined to comment. 

Once the Poznań site is transferred over, Delpharm will manufacture the GSK products made there under a five-year-plus contract. The site’s portfolio included 81 tablet- and capsule-based drugs as of late 2018, according to a report from PMR Consulting.

GSK acquired the Polish site in 1998 and spent around $ 500 million there over 20 years, PMR said. The facility churned out 8.7 million tablets and 1.3 million capsules every day as of late 2018, PMR reported, and exported drugs to 130 countries.

In March 2019, the drugmaker announced plans for a financial hub in Poznań, which will stay in GSK’s hands moving forward, the company said in a release. The hub employs between 200 and 300 employees, GSK said previously.

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