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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Genentech Plans Holly Springs, North Carolina, Manufacturing Operations

05/16/2025
American biotechnology corporation Genentech plans to establish manufacturing operations in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The $700 million project is expected to create 400 jobs in Wake County.

The investment will include the construction of a 700,000-square-foot high-volume fill-finish facility, located at the CaMP Helix innovation campus, which will focus on producing next-generation metabolic and obesity medicines.

"Genentech would like to thank Governor Stein and Commerce Secretary Lilley for their support and for welcoming us to North Carolina. We are thrilled to establish this relationship with the city of Holly Springs, where we will create new manufacturing and construction jobs while making a broader positive impact on the local economy and community for many years to come,” said Genentech CEO Ashley Magargee. “Our new facility will serve as an important new setting within our manufacturing network to help deliver on the promise of our company’s life-changing science and industry-leading pipeline."

The project is being supported, in part, by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee. Over the course of the 12-year term of this grant, the project is estimated to grow the state’s economy by more than $3 billion. Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs and the capital investment, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $9,846,750, spread over 12 years and based on the creation of 420 jobs. State payments only occur following performance verification by the departments of Commerce and Revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets.

The project's projected return on investment of public dollars is 230 per cent, meaning for every dollar of potential cost, the state receives $3.30 in state revenue. JDIG projects result in positive net tax revenue to the state treasury, even after taking into consideration the grant’s reimbursement payments to a given company.

“Genentech siting its first East Coast production facility in North Carolina is a gamechanger for our already strong biotechnology sector,” noted North Carolina Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley. “Thanks to amazing state leadership from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and continued investments in workforce and infrastructure, these kinds of successes breed great jobs and great therapies that make the world a healthier place.”

Because Genentech chose to expand in Wake County, classified by the state’s economic tier system as Tier 3, the company’s JDIG agreement also calls for moving $3,282,250 into the state’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account. The Utility Account helps rural communities finance necessary infrastructure upgrades to attract future business. Even when new jobs are created in a Tier 3 county such as Wake, the new tax revenue generated through JDIG grants helps more economically challenged communities elsewhere in the state.

"It is exciting to think about this project and all that it brings to Holly Springs, Wake County and the entire state," added Bill Bullock, senior vice president for economic and statewide development for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. "We look forward to working with Genentech in the future. This company brings an impressive history of collaboration and innovation that will fit well in our life sciences ecosystem in North Carolina."

Partnering with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) on the project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, N.C. Commerce’s Division of Workforce Solutions, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, N.C. State University, Duke Energy, Enbridge Gas North Carolina, Capital Area Workforce Development, Wake Tech, the Town of Holly Springs, Wake County, and Wake County Economic Development, a program of the Greater Raleigh Chamber.

Genentech, a member of Switzerland-based Roche Group, focuses on developing and delivering medicines for serious and life-threatening diseases, including the first targeted antibody for cancer and the first medicine for primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

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