Area Development
Bayer CropScience LP, a subsidiary of Germany-based biotechnology and pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG, will invest $10.2 million to open a BioScience Innovation Center in Morrisville, North Carolina. The company says it will create 128 new jobs at the facility; the North Carolina governor's office reports that the average annual salary for the new positions will be $101,018 plus benefits. Bayer CropScience's U.S. headquarters is located in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, where it employs 2.400. The company will lease office and laboratory space for the new facility, which will focus on basic plant science across a range of technology and crop platforms, and will house the company's BioAnalytics and Regulatory Affairs functions that support the development and commercialization of biotech products. "Bayer CropScience has strong roots in North Carolina and a clear intention to expand the business here," says Bill Buckner, Bayer CropScience LP's president and CEO. "In addition to having one of the best-trained biotechnology work forces in the country, this region is also a center of agricultural and biotechnology innovation, so when we were looking to expand our innovation capacity, it made great business sense to do so in this area." The state is offering Bayer CropScience LP an incentives package that could yield as much as $2.3 million in tax benefits, contingent on job creation and retention of those jobs for nine years.