In 2024, Mer­ck will dis­con­tin­ue its man­u­fac­tur­ing of ac­tive phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­gre­di­ents. And with that move, it will no longer need its Chero­kee man­u­fac­tur­ing site in Danville, PA.

The site will close when API pro­duc­tion stops, the com­pa­ny said to End­points News in a state­ment emailed Thurs­day. The news was first re­port­ed by lo­cal news­pa­per The Dai­ly Item Wednes­day. Coun­ty com­mis­sion­er Sam Schic­catano told the pa­per that the coun­ty was in­formed of the clo­sure that af­ter­noon. The plant is one of the area’s largest em­ploy­ers.

The site makes imipen­em non­ster­ile and cilas­tatin non­ster­ile for Pri­max­in/Tien­am and Re­car­brio, as well as er­tapen­em sodi­um for In­vanz. Once the site clos­es, it will use its al­ready-ex­ist­ing net­work of API man­u­fac­tur­ers to make the drug sub­stance.

“We will start dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of API man­u­fac­tur­ing in 2024 which will lead to the ul­ti­mate clo­sure of the Chero­kee man­u­fac­tur­ing site,” the email said. “Cur­rent­ly, we do not know the ul­ti­mate dis­po­si­tion of the site.”

There are 300 full-time em­ploy­ees set to be im­pact­ed by the move. Mer­ck em­ploys rough­ly 14,000 peo­ple in Penn­syl­va­nia, and has in­vest­ed $3 bil­lion in man­u­fac­tur­ing op­er­a­tions there.

“It’s im­por­tant to em­pha­size that the de­ci­sion to cease op­er­a­tions is no re­flec­tion of the per­for­mance of our Chero­kee em­ploy­ees,” the state­ment said. “Mer­ck is com­mit­ted to as­sist­ing and sup­port­ing em­ploy­ees at the site and pro­vides sep­a­ra­tion ben­e­fits. Chero­kee em­ploy­ees will have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ap­ply for oth­er po­si­tions with­in the com­pa­ny with in­ter­nal job trans­fer tim­ing man­aged to en­sure con­tin­ued op­er­a­tion of the site.”

Mer­ck bought the site from Chero­kee Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals in 2008, who sup­plied Mer­ck as a con­tract man­u­fac­tur­er. Mer­ck bought back the site from the com­pa­ny to en­sure that it would not be in sort sup­ply of APIs.

As the House-passed bill to cap the monthly price of insulin at $35 nationwide makes its way for a Senate vote soon, Sanofi announced Wednesday morning that beginning next month it will cut the monthly price of its insulins for uninsured Americans to $35, down from $99 previously.

The announcement from Sanofi, which allows the uninsured to buy one or multiple Sanofi insulins (Lantus, Insulin Glargine U-100, Toujeo, Admelog, and Apidra) at $35 for a 30-day supply effective July 1, follows House passage (232-193) of the monthly cap in March, with just 12 Republicans voting in favor of the measure.

Indian-based generics manufacturer Aurobindo Pharma has been in the crosshairs of the FDA for several years now, but the company is also attracting attention from regulators within the subcontinent.

According to the Indian business news site Business Standard, a warning letter was sent to the company from the Securities Exchange Board of India, or SEBI.

The letter is related to disclosures made by the company on an ongoing FDA audit of the company’s Unit-1 API facility in Hyderabad, India as well as observations made by the US regulator between 2019 and 2022.

While Massachusetts-based Charles River Laboratories has been on an acquisition spree, they are not against planting their flag. The latest move by the company sees them crossing the pond to establish a manufacturing site in the UK.

The company on Tuesday opened its cell and gene therapy manufacturing center at Bruntwood SciTech’s Alderley Park in Cheshire, United Kingdom. The expansion follows Charles River’s acquisition of Cognate BioServices and Cobra Biologics in 2021 for $875 million. Cognate is a plasmid DNA, viral vector and cell therapy CDMO.

Following some backlash from the American College of Cardiology and patients, Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer lowered the price of their blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis, thus ensuring that CVS Caremark would cover the drug after 6 months of it being off the major PBM’s formulary.

“Because we secured lower net costs for patients from negotiations with the drug manufacturer, Eliquis will be added back to our template formularies for the commercial segment effective July 1, 2022, and patient choices will be expanded,” CVS Health said in an emailed statement. “Anti-coagulant therapies are among the non-specialty products where we are seeing the fastest cost increases from drug manufacturers and we will continue to push back on unwarranted price increases.”