Novartis has announced plans to build a new flagship US manufacturing hub in North Carolina. The announcement comes as part of Novartis’ $23bn investment in US infrastructure over the next five years.
Novartis already has a manufacturing facility based in Durham, North Carolina. As part of the new hub, this facility will be updated, giving it the capability to support sterile filling of biologics into syringes and vials. A new site will be built in Durham, containing two facilities dedicated to sterile packaging and biologics manufacturing. Additionally, a new site will also be built in nearby Morrisville, containing a facility for the production of solid dosage tablets and capsules.
This area of North Carolina is known as the Research Triangle, due to its being home to three major research universities and several tech companies.
The company’s planned $23bn US investment aims to allow all of Novartis’ key medicines to be end-to-end US-produced. As well as drug and packaging manufacture, many of Novartis’ advanced technologies are produced in the US. These include cell and gene therapies produced in New Jersey and North Carolina and radioligand therapies produced in New Jersey, Indiana and California. Novartis also plans to announce the location for a new US manufacturing facility for xRNA therapies in the next few months.
Novartis’ existing facility in Durham will combine with the new Durham and Morrisville facilities to create a flagship hub, allowing production teams to work together from ingredients manufacture to final packaging. Products and equipment produced there will cover all of the company’s main therapeutic areas: oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic.
The hub, which is expected to open in 2027-28, will encompass more than 700,000 square feet and is expected to create 700 new jobs at Novartis by 2030.