AbbVie expands US footprint with new $1.4 billion manufacturing campus

AbbVie is building a new $1.4 billion manufacturing campus in Durham, North Carolina, as its US centre of excellence for small volume parenteral (SVP) manufacturing.

Over the next four years, AbbVie plans to hire 734 employees, including engineers, scientists, manufacturing operators and laboratory technicians to work on the 185-acre campus.

The first construction phase will include building drug product production facilities with advanced manufacturing technologies for SVP’s, sterile injectable pharmaceutical products with volumes typically less than 100 mL, including vials, prefilled cartridges and prefilled syringes.

Our investment in North Carolina represents a significant milestone for AbbVie as our largest capital investment to date and an important expansion of our manufacturing footprint into a new region of the US”

Alongside this, next-generation laboratories that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) will be created to support production of its immunology, neuroscience and oncology medicines, as well as additional warehouse space.

Robert Michael, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AbbVie, said: “Our investment in North Carolina represents a significant milestone for AbbVie as our largest capital investment to date and an important expansion of our manufacturing footprint into a new region of the US.”

This new campus is part of AbbVie’s $100 billion investment in its US R&D and capital over the next ten years. In the past 12 months alone, the company has committed $2.2 billion, including $195 million to expand its API manufacturing capabilities. This is in addition to over 300 new jobs in North Carolina, Illinois, Arizona and Massachusetts.

AbbVie’s new campus is expected to be completed by the end of 2028.

As the new site is prepared to produce AbbVie’s oncology medicines, earlier this year the firm furthered its ambitions in the field with addition of novel bispecific antibody to its portfolio as part of a $5 billion licensing agreement with Chinese biotech RemeGen.