New Jersey, like many other states, offers specialized license plates for your vehicle. These special license plates feature a wide range of topics from Organ Donor, Animal Friendly, Conquer Cancer, and my favorite - USS New Jersey Battleship. If you would like one, costs vary from $20 - $50 initially and yearly renewal costs range from $10 - $15. As New Jersey boasts a shoreline of approximately 140 miles, one of the most popular specialized license plates is “Shore to Please”. A nice little play on words – highlighting the Jersey shore’s (not the TV show) beauty and entertainment options.
As much as I would like to get a special license plate, I’ve always been, ahem, too cheap to get one. A regular, old license plate will do just fine for me.
Conversely, the pharmaceutical industry has not been too cheap to announce new facility construction here in the U.S. Call it onshoring, reshoring, or what you want – there has been a massive amount of investment announced.
As this year is coming rapidly to a close, I thought it might be interesting to review the ten biggest announced projects since January:
Merck broke ground on a $3B Center of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in Elkton, VA, part of more than $70B the company is committing to expand its U.S. manufacturing and R&D capabilities. The 400,000 SF site will produce vaccines, APIs, and small-molecule therapies, creating 500 permanent and 8,000 construction jobs.
AstraZeneca announced a sweeping $50B U.S. investment plan through 2030, highlighted by a new multi-billion-dollar drug-substance manufacturing facility in Virginia to supply its weight-management and cardiovascular drug portfolio, including oral GLP 1 and PCSK9 therapies. The program also supports expansions in Maryland, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Texas. AstraZeneca described the investment as essential to achieving $80B global revenue by 2030, half from the U.S. market.
J&J committed more than $55B through 2029 to expand U.S. manufacturing and research activity, including a $2B biologics facility in Wilson, NC and an additional $2B in collaboration with Fujifilm Biotechnologies in Holly Springs, NC These sites will manufacture biologic drug substances and support both J&J’s Innovative Medicine and MedTech operations, reinforcing the company’s pledge to produce most U.S.-marketed medicines domestically.
Roche detailed a $50B U.S. expansion spanning facilities in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and New Jersey, focused on biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and personalized medicines. The centerpiece is a $700M, 700,000 square foot facility in Holly Springs for obesity and metabolic treatments. Roche framed the project as a cornerstone in its goal to strengthen its U.S. diagnostic and therapeutic manufacturing base.
Eli Lilly and Company accelerated reshoring efforts with a $27B, four plant expansion across Indiana, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. The projects focus on active ingredient synthesis and sterile injectable manufacturing, aiming to reduce exposure to import tariffs and strengthen control over quality systems and compliance. In total, these sites will add over 3,000 permanent jobs and tens of thousands of construction positions.
Novartis announced $23B over five years to bolster U.S. production capacity across 10 sites, adding seven new facilities in the process. Investments include a $1.1B research hub in San Diego and multiple new radioligand therapy plants in Florida and Texas. The company aims to ensure that all core manufacturing platforms - small molecules, biologics, and RLT - have U.S.-based capacity to mitigate international logistics and regulatory risk.
Biogen unveiled a $2B expansion at its Research Triangle Park (RTP), NC campus, adding biomanufacturing and fill–finish capabilities for complex therapies. Expected to create hundreds of high-skill jobs, the facility supports Biogen’s late-stage clinical programs and leverages the state’s biomanufacturing workforce infrastructure. The company pointed to tariff-driven reshoring trends and regulatory proximity as strategic drivers.
Gilead Sciences pledged an additional $11B in U.S. manufacturing and technology investments through 2030, supplementing its prior $21B commitment. The plan covers three new facilities and upgrades to three existing ones, focusing on therapeutic manufacturing, advanced engineering, and digital process capabilities, with 800 new direct hires. Gilead said these expansions aim to enhance pipeline speed and operational self-sufficiency.
AbbVie announced a $195M expansion of its North Chicago, IL, API facility, part of a broader $10B decade-long U.S. investment program to expand its domestic manufacturing base. The new site, will support chemical synthesis of medicines for oncology, neuroscience, and immunology, reinforcing production reliability amid global raw material disruptions.
Amgen expanded its New Albany, OH plant by $900M, complementing its $1B drug substance facility under construction in Holly Springs, NC. Together, the company’s U.S. manufacturing commitments surpass $1.5B.
Collectively, these announcements represent a huge investment in the domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. It will be interesting to see how these investments progress over the coming years. After all, it’s easy to build sandcastles at the Jersey shore. Pharmaceutical facilites are a bit more involved. We will see.
Mike Auerbach
Group Editor-In-Chief
[email protected]