Genentech doubles investment in North Carolina manufacturing facility

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Roche’s Genentech unit is doubling its investment in its Holly Springs, North Carolina biomanufacturing facility by approximately $2 billion.

This additional investment aligns with the firm’s plan to expand its pharmaceutical manufacturing presence in the US, through a commitment of $50 billion.

The Holly Springs site is Genentech’s first on the East Coast and will add production volume and scale manufacturing capacity. Once fully online, the expanded facility will produce next-generation treatments for metabolic conditions, such as obesity, and harness advanced biomanufacturing, automation and digital tools.

Construction of the new facility expansion began in August 2025 and is set to be completed by 2029. The expansion is expected to support over 500 high-wage manufacturing jobs and will add to Roche and Genentech’s 13 other manufacturing and 15 R&D sites across the US.

Genentech CEO Ashley Magargee said the current investment will “create more high-quality jobs, strengthen local partnerships, and ensure a resilient supply of medicines for years to come, allowing us to bring life-changing medicines to patients faster and more reliably”.

Genentech is one of a number of pharma companies to have hugely ramped up their investments in US manufacturing capabilities in the last year as a result of increased political pressure from President Donald Trump and his administration.

Last November, AstraZeneca invested an additional $2 billion in its Maryland manufacturing facility and in December Lilly announced plans to invest over $6 billion in its third US manufacturing facility sited in Alabama. This plant will produce synthetic medicine active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for small molecule synthetic and peptide medicines. Meanwhile, GSK in September shared it is directing $30 billion into its US R&D and manufacturing capabilities over five years.