National Resilience tapped to open biopharma facility in United Arab Emirates, with help from Mubadala

PHARMA: Deal Includes Equity Investment from Mubadala

National Resilience, Inc. is going international.

On Jan. 10, the San Diego-based drug and complex medicines manufacturing company announced it had entered an agreement to build a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates' (UAE).

As part of an equity investment in Resilience from Mubadala Investment Company PJSC, an Abu Dhabi sovereign investor, the two parties signed the deal intended to help secure the global biopharma supply chain and advance the UAE life sciences ecosystem through a biopharma manufacturing collaboration. The amount of the investment was undisclosed.

“We are excited to expand the footprint of our Resilience manufacturing network outside of North America. This is a significant milestone, not just for our company but also for our nation,” said Resilience CEO Rahul Singhvi. “We look forward to working alongside America's allies in the region to ensure that trusted, cutting-edge biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity is available to support local, regional and global economies.”

Under the agreement, Mubadala will fund and build the new manufacturing facility, which Singvi anticipates will take approximately three years. Resilience will be supporting the design and construction of the facility with subject matter expert advice. The size of the facility will be determined as part of the design process.

Once built, the facility will be operated by Resilience to manufacture certain biopharmaceutical-related products in the UAE, including a range of therapeutics for complex diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases, and inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, as well as vaccines.

“We are actively investing in innovation and firmly believe that, by strengthening Abu Dhabi's national life sciences ecosystem, we are building a future focused, sustainable and knowledge-based economy for the UAE,” said Badr Al-Olama, executive director, UAE Clusters at Mubadala. “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.”

Building Worldwide Resilience

National Resilience, Inc. was founded in 2020 during the height of the pandemic to address exposed shortcomings in the U.S. drug and vaccine supply chain. Since its founding, the company has built out or acquired nearly 2 million square feet of manufacturing capacity across eight U.S. sites and one in Canada.

“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,” Singhvi said. “The company's focus has been on domestic capacity so far, and a lot of progress has been made there. International expansion, such as the Mubadala partnership, is the natural next step, which will be done in a deliberate manner.”

As part of the collaboration with Mubadala, Resilience will provide manufacturing, technology and operational expertise for the Abu Dhabi-based facility and integrate the site as a node within its global network. The facility will be the first Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) biopharma facility in the region based in Abu Dhabi to manufacture essential life sciences products for advanced biologics. In return, the partnership provides Resilience with “local and regional demand and revenue,” Singhvi said. ■