
Resilience starts the year with its first deal outside of North America
Manufacturing company Resilience hit several high points in 2022 in securing another funding round and netting partnerships with major players, and now it’s starting the new year with a deal that moves it outside North America for the first time.
On Tuesday, Resilience announced that the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investors, the Mubadala Investment Company, inked an equity investment. The two parties will collaborate on a biopharma manufacturing plan to build a new manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi. As per the deal, Mubadala will establish the facility and Resilience will operate it. The Abu Dhabi facility will manufacture a range of products, including therapies for cancer and infectious diseases, along with vaccines and other products.
Resilience will provide the manufacturing along with the technology and “expertise,” and incorporate it into its global network and giving the company a foothold in the Middle East. The exact details of where the facility will be located, along with the size and timeline for completion, were not disclosed.
“This will be Resilience’s first manufacturing facility outside of North America, a significant milestone for the company, representing that Resilience is seen as a trusted partner who will bring advanced biomanufacturing technologies and operating systems to the region. This will allow the region to become self-sufficient and resilient to changes,” said Resilience CEO Rahul Singhvi, in an emailed statement to Endpoints News.
The specifics of the financial investment were also not disclosed, but Singhvi said Mubadala had invested in multiple rounds of equity financing at Resilience and that this Mubadala investment is included in the “aggregate round sizes” that have been previously announced. Singhvi also noted that some of the board members of Resilience have a prior relationship with Mubadala. Resilience raised $625 million in a Series D in June of last year.
“Through this agreement, Mubadala and its group companies will unlock further opportunities for growth within the life sciences ecosystem, and alongside our key partners, will play an instrumental role in establishing a state-of-the-art biopharma campus that will secure the region’s supply chain from Abu Dhabi,” said Badr Al-Olama the executive director of UAE Clusters at Mubadala, in a statement.
Abu Dhabi has been working to boost pharma manufacturing in the country. In late December, AstraZeneca and Abu Dhabi-based G42 Healthcare inked a strategic manufacturing deal to make drugs in Abu Dhabi. That manufacturing deal will focus on R&D and “localizing” industries to produce pharma products, as AstraZeneca also has “ongoing efforts” with the Department of Health of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi also has unveiled plans to double the size of its manufacturing sector by 2031.
Resilience spent last year cementing its presence in North America. In November, it purchased an AstraZeneca manufacturing facility in West Chester, OH, just north of Cincinnati. Resilience will produce “select” AstraZeneca medicines at the facility as part of the supply agreement.