Biology has become a technology, and technology is beginning to feel biological. We rarely stop to sense it, but we are living through an age of acceleration—where discovery builds on itself faster than we can comprehend. It took more than four centuries to get from the invention of the microscope to the discovery of penicillin. It has been just 75 years since the structure of DNA was revealed, and today gene therapies are finding their place in mainstream medicine.

In the span of a single generation, we have mapped the human genome, developed mRNA vaccines, harnessed next-generation genetic engineering technology for gene editing and drug development, and begun using artificial intelligence to design drugs, predict protein folding, and even personalize treatment plans.

America’s next great scientific leap will hinge not only on discovery but on the capacity to manufacture those discoveries at home. Across the United States, a new generation of pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing facilities is rising to meet the promise of modern science, transforming the nation’s industrial base into an engine for the future of human health.

Diagnosing the Imbalance: When Discovery Outpaces Production

A recent Quality Matters report found that roughly half of all U.S.-approved active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) depend on a single country for at least one of their key starting materials. The supply chain is heavily concentrated: about 41 percent of those materials come exclusively from China, and another 16 percent are sourced solely from India.

According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), U.S. pharmaceutical companies conduct more than half of the world’s pharmaceutical research and development and are responsible for nearly half of all new treatments developed globally. Yet the United States produces well under half of the medicines it consumes and accounts for less than one-fifth of global pharmaceutical exports by value. Modern medicines require an industrial scale and an entirely new generation of facilities. The convergence of science and industry now underway could signal a return of medicine production to American soil—if policy becomes the prescription rather than the diagnosis.

Industrial Policy as the New Prescription for National Security

Among the many forces driving the push for a more resilient medicine supply chain, natural disasters have hit a nerve that few policymakers can ignore. Recent events have underscored just how fragile pharmaceutical production can be when it is concentrated in a few vulnerable regions. In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico—crippling supplies of painkillers, antibiotics, and IV bags across the United States. And as recently as last year, Hurricane Helene forced shutdowns at key manufacturing sites in North Carolina, triggering nationwide shortages of IV solutions and dialysis fluids.

But nothing hit harder than the pandemic. COVID-19 caused systemic disruption across API exports, leading to shortages of antibiotics and many other common generic drugs. Before 2020, the vast majority of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in U.S. medicines—nearly three-quarters—came from overseas, largely from China and India. When the pandemic disrupted trade through lockdowns, export bans, and supply bottlenecks, many manufacturers found themselves unable to secure even basic generic drugs. COVID-19 did not just speed up breakthroughs in vaccines and gene therapies; it exposed how dependent the U.S. had become on foreign production and elevated manufacturing to a matter of national strategy.

What began as emergency measures during the pandemic—safeguarding supply chains and rebuilding domestic capacity—has evolved into a coordinated effort to treat U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing as critical infrastructure. The result is an industrial policy with a surgical purpose: to secure the means of making modern medicine at home.

However, treating pharmaceutical manufacturing as critical infrastructure is not a novel idea—it is a page borrowed from the modern industrial playbook. Framing production capacity as essential to national security and economic competitiveness has proven an effective strategy in other sectors. Data centers, semiconductor fabs, and clean energy plants all leveraged their own geopolitical considerations—and each unlocked billions in public and private investment as a result. Logically, the ability to produce life-saving therapies is being recognized as a pillar of national strength, because where we make medicine matters.

To accomplish this, tariffs, drug pricing, and legislative overhauls under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) have begun to reshape the economics of U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Tariffs, heavily debated in their effectiveness across industries, seem to be working in pharma because they align with both national security and domestic capacity goals. By raising the cost of importing active ingredients and finished drugs from China and India, the U.S. has effectively forced multinational drugmakers to reconsider their dependence on overseas production.

OBBBA is redefining how pharmaceutical companies assess where they invent, manufacture, and distribute their products. Key provisions include new policies to improve the safety and security of biological research, including a ban on federal funding for research in countries of concern; extending key incentives first introduced under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; and restoring immediate deductibility of domestic research and development costs. Perhaps most importantly, it extends 100 percent first-year expensing to entire manufacturing facilities rather than just capital equipment, allowing companies to deduct the full cost of new plant construction immediately rather than depreciating it over decades. This change fundamentally alters the investment calculus for advanced manufacturing in the United States, turning what was once a gradual recovery of cost into an instant balance-sheet benefit.

In literature, this shift is referred to as “peripety,” or the “shift in balance” moment we so often see in stories and cinema when the odds even out and the direction of the story changes—think Han Solo returning in the Millennium Falcon to save Luke from Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter, or when Rocky switches stances in the final rounds of the fight. For the U.S. life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors, this policy alignment marks that turning point: a chance to rebuild domestic production capacity, strengthen supply chain resilience, and restore strategic independence in a critical area of the American economy.

Breaking Ground on the Next Generation of Medicine

Capital expenditures aimed at growing capacity, capturing market share, conforming with regulatory compliance, and optimizing production have captured recent headlines as pharmaceutical giants and biotech pioneers scale their research from the bench to the factory floor. These regional ecosystems are both expanding and emerging in places where workforce, infrastructure, incentives, and supply chains meet. Billions of dollars in capital expenditures have dominated the headlines, with states like North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Kentucky, and Oregon announcing massive projects from well-known industry giants seeking to avoid punishing tariffs.

Biomanufacturing, one of the fastest-growing subsets within the pharmaceutical industry, is ground zero for testing the realities of U.S. production. These biologics—drugs and therapies produced from living systems rather than chemical synthesis—touch nearly every aspect of modern health, from cancer immunotherapies and mRNA vaccines to insulin, cosmetics, and probiotic supplements.

In the eyes of pharmaceutical manufacturers, the most competitive markets share a familiar DNA: close access to raw materials and customers, dependable and affordable power, a ready mix of skilled and unskilled labor, a maturing digital backbone, deep industry partnerships, and a regulatory environment that invites investment. Still, challenges will persist even in more developed regions, including systemic and skilled workforce shortages and lead times for essential power system components such as power distribution panels, transformers, switchgear, generators, and UPS systems.

Construction expertise in this field is highly concentrated. Modern drug production depends on a narrow supply of specialized trades—mechanical and process-piping specialists, electrical and instrumentation technicians, HVAC experts, millwrights, and increasingly, data and automation technicians who maintain the plant’s digital backbone. But many of these same trades are being absorbed by the high-wage data center boom, where demand for power infrastructure, precision cooling, and automation parallels the needs of pharmaceutical manufacturing. The result is an increasingly competitive labor market.

The Next Decade of U.S. Pharma Manufacturing

The U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing sector was valued at roughly $129 billion in 2024, and most forecasts expect it to grow at a steady 5 percent to 7 percent annually over the next decade. The next wave of investment is focused on automation, AI-driven production, and smarter supply chains that shorten the path from lab to patient. Companies are also putting greater emphasis on sustainability, flexibility, and facility designs built for personalized medicine—plants capable of producing smaller, more targeted batches rather than mass-market drugs alone.

Precision medicine and AI are converging to reshape both how therapies are developed and how care is delivered. Major players like Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Novartis are moving to strengthen their U.S. manufacturing base, investing heavily in advanced production and digital infrastructure.

Together, these shifts reflect a broader evolution: the U.S. is moving from a discovery-led pharmaceutical model to one defined by resilient, bio-industrial manufacturing.