Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has announced plans to build a cleanroom manufacturing hub in North Carolina that will combine newly built and expanded facilities across Durham and Morrisville.
“By building a full, end-to-end manufacturing presence in North Carolina for our broader portfolio, we are expanding our capacity to deliver medical breakthroughs, securing a more resilient US supply chain,” said Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis.
So far, Novartis has made an investment of over $23bn over the next five years to build out its US infrastructure, with about $771m investment specifically in Durham and Wake Counties.
The campus is projected to cover more than 700,000 sqft and create approximately 700 new direct jobs and more than 3,000 indirect jobs by the end of 2023.
The new campus will integrate biologics, sterile fill-finish, and solid-dose production, showcasing advanced cleanroom and contamination control technologies.
New facilities for manufacturing campus
Two new Durham facilities will focus on biologics manufacturing and sterile packaging, while an expansion of an existing Durham site will support aseptic fill-finish into vials and prefilled syringes.
A new Morrisville facility will be built to produce tablets and capsules, including packaging.
The company will also expand the scope of the existing Durham facility to support more capability for sterile filling of biologics into syringes and vials.
The campus will allow for flexible deployment of cleanrooms for multiple product types, supporting a broad therapeutic portfolio that includes oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic therapies.
The full campus is slated to open between 2027 and 2028.
Building on its experience with advanced cell and gene therapy manufacturing at its Swiss facility in Stein, Novartis’ new North Carolina hub is expected to leverage similar expertise in cleanroom design and contamination control.