Consultants Forum Advertise
Subscribe
Close

  • Free for qualified executives and consultants to industry

  • Receive quarterly issues of Area Development Magazine and special market report and directory issues

Subscribe Now
Renew

Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Amgen Builds Holly Springs, North Carolina, Biologics Manufacturing Center

08/04/2021
Amgen Inc., the pioneering biotechnology company, will invest $550 to build a new biologics manufacturing operation in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The project is expected to create 355 jobs in Wake County.

The company’s new site in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina will bring a biologics drug substance manufacturing plant online to help the company continue to meet the production demands for its life-saving medicines.

“Amgen is investing in a technologically-advanced drug substance plant in North Carolina to support the expected increase in demand for our medicines. Together with the previously announced advanced packaging plant in Ohio, we have committed to investing nearly $1 billion in new manufacturing capacity in the United States,” said Amgen Executive Vice President of Operations Esteban Santos.

Amgen’s project in North Carolina will be facilitated, in part, by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee earlier today. Over the course of the 12-year term of this grant, economists in the Department of Commerce estimate the project will grow the state’s economy by $2.5 billion. Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $11,612,250, spread over 12 years, based on a required capital investment of $380.5 million. Over those 12 years, new state tax revenues generated by the new jobs will exceed $63.6 million.

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. 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.

"World-class companies like Amgen are very selective when they evaluate business locations and they only choose places that provide the best support for their operations,” said Governor Roy Cooper. “Today’s decision proves once again that North Carolina remains a premier location for the most innovative biotech companies in the industry.”

Amgen’s JDIG agreement could also move as much as $3,870,750 into a fund that helps rural communities across the state attract business in the future. When companies select a site located in a Tier 3 county such as Wake, their JDIG agreements move some of the new tax revenue into the state’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account. Local communities in more economically challenged areas of the state use grants from the Utility Account to build public infrastructure projects, which can improve a community’s ability to attract companies to their regions.

“It’s exciting to see the industry where I spent much of my career become such a vital economic engine for our state,” said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. “As the state’s new First in Talent strategic plan makes clear, developing and maintaining a skilled and diverse workforce will lead to more economic growth and great decisions like Amgen’s choice today.”

The Amgen facility in North Carolina will be built to exacting environmental standards, consistent with the company’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality, reducing water use by 40% and waste disposal by 75% by 2027. The facility also will support Amgen’s participation as a founding member of OneTen, a coalition of many of the world’s largest, best-known companies that aims collectively to hire one million Black Americans into well-paying jobs over the next ten years, with a specific focus on those without a four-year college degree.

Exclusive Research