Dive Brief:
- Johnson & Johnson said it will establish two U.S. manufacturing facilities as part of a larger $55 billion commitment to support domestic production over the next four years.
- The pharmaceuticals giant plans to build a cell therapy manufacturing site in Pennsylvania and a drug production plant in Wilson, North Carolina, further expanding its presence in each state, according to multiple news releases.
- State officials are expecting the investments to create hundreds of jobs for their communities. A J&J spokesperson declined to disclose specific financial and location details.
Dive Insight:
J&J said it has begun investing billions of dollars in domestic manufacturing over the past 10 months, with a goal of producing “the vast majority” of its advanced medicines stateside.
Last year, J&J broke ground on a 500,000-square-foot biologics manufacturing facility in Wilson, North Carolina, with construction underway. The drugmaker also signed a $2 billion deal in September to secure manufacturing space at Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ Holly Springs, North Carolina, facility, over a 10-year period.
J&J also plans to build a second “multibillion-dollar” facility in Wilson, marking its third investment in North Carolina over the past year.The state plans to support the project through an Industrial Development Fund grant and a legislative appropriation of $12 million to expand the training center at Wilson Community College, according to the office of Gov. Josh Stein. The project is expected to create up to 500 plant jobs.
J&J also plans to build a “next generation” cell therapy site in Pennsylvania as other life sciences firms, such as Eurofins and GSK, expand in the state.
Additionally, the drugmaker recently reached a deal with the Trump administration to be exempt from tariffs, allowing it to lower medicine costs for Americans.
As part of the agreement, J&J is participating in the administration’s direct-to-patient platform TrumpRx.gov, where patients can purchase medicines at “significantly discounted rates” that are comparable to other countries.
The drugmaker said it plans to unveil more U.S. investments later this year.
Several other pharmaceutical companies are also making lofty investments to secure their U.S. footholds as tariff uncertainty continues. In June, U.K.-based AstraZeneca announced it will allocate $50 billion to U.S. manufacturing and research and development. This week, Chicago-based AbbVie also struck a tariff exemption deal with the Trump administration and pledged to spend $100 billion on manufacturing and R&D over the next decade.
