After decades under Johnson & Johnson, a massive plant that once cranked out over-the-counter mainstays like Pepcid and Imodium is poised to hit the market.
High Properties acquired J&J’s Greenfield, Pennsylvania, consumer health facility for $14 million, local news outlet Lancaster Online first reported. Fierce Pharma has viewed a copy of the deed confirming the sale, which went through in late March.
J&J and High Properties did not immediately respond to Fierce Pharma’s request for comment on the matter.
The ownership switch comes after last month’s news that Johnson & Johnson would cut 57 positions at the Lancaster County facility, as detailed in a local Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. Those layoffs are due to kick off on April 28 and follow previously disclosed plans to mothball the facility, which shut down last year, according to Lancaster Online. J&J has said it expects to shutter operations at the plant in full by fall of 2023.
High Properties plans to market the 144,000-square-foot plant to manufacturers, food processors or other pharmaceutical companies, senior vice president of commercial asset management, Mike Lorelli, told Lancaster Online. The company aims to lease the facility to a single tenant, he said, adding that the building is expandable to approximately 250,000 square feet.
The Greenfield plant will be up for grabs in January 2024 once J&J wraps up the decommissioning process, Lancaster Online notes. Johnson & Johnson built the plant back in 1986. In 1992, J&J linked up with Merck & Co. to begin producing consumer health products there, purchasing Merck’s stake in the facility in 2011.
There were 120 employees at the facility in 2011 when J&J took over operations from Merck in full, the news outlet reports.
The Greenfield plant is one of two nearby OTC production centers J&J recently sold for a combined $59 million. The move is part of a consolidation effort as J&J prepares to spin out its consumer health business into the new company Kenvue.
Consumer health spinoffs have become increasingly common at big pharmaceutical companies like GSK and Pfizer. J&J, for its part, drew back the curtain on plans to hive off its own consumer health arm in November 2021, noting at the time that the process would take some 18 to 24 months.