Bristol-Myers Squibb completes land acquisition

International pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced the completion of a land purchase deal in Massachusetts.

The 89-acre site, acquired from real estate business MassDevelopment, is set to provide the location for a new manufacturing plant which will produce a number of biologic compounds including Orencia (abatacept).

According to Bristol-Myers Squibb, building works on the new planned facility at Devens are scheduled to commence within the next few weeks and it is expected to become an operational plant by 2009.

The pharmaceutical company stated that the production facility will “help meet future production needs of biologic compounds currently in development, including the company’s investigational treatments for solid organ transplant rejection and certain types of cancers”.

Currently, the firm owns a manufacturing plant in New York and manages packaging operations from a facility in Puerto Rico.

Bristol-Myers Squibb has asserted that these factories will remain an important part of its manufacturing operations and form an overall part of its strategy to broaden the number of biologic compounds available.

As a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, Orencia works by blocking the signals that make T cells active in the immune system, which are believed to be one of the primary triggers behind a series of events that lead to the pain associated with the condition.