Novartis has announced plans to expand its operations in North Carolina by creating a new manufacturing hub with drug-substance and drug-product capabilities. The investment is part of the company’s previously announced $23-billion investment in US-based infrastructure over the next five years, which Novartis says is part of a manufacturing plan to enable 100% of the company’s key medicines to be produced end-to-end in the US. 

Anticipated to open in 2027-2028, the manufacturing hub, encompassing more than 700,000 square feet between the existing campus and new facilities, is expected to create 700 new jobs at Novartis and more than 3,000 indirect jobs across the supply chain by the end of 2030. The expansion in North Carolina includes plans to:  

• Build a new site in Durham with the construction of two new facilities dedicated to manufacturing biologics and sterile packaging; 

• Build a new site in Morrisville with one facility for the production of solid dosage tablets and capsules, including packaging; and 

• Expand the scope of its existing Durham facility with the added capability to support sterile filling of biologics into syringes and vials. 

Novartis says it is on track to produce all of its products requiring advanced technologies in the US with: 

• Cell and gene therapies manufactured in Morris Plains, New Jersey, and Durham, North Carolina;  

• Radioligand therapies manufactured in facilities in Millburn, New Jersey, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, and Carlsbad, California, and two new sites planned in Florida and Texas;  

• xRNA therapies to be manufactured at a new facility whose location will be announced in the coming months (as reported on November 19, 2025).  

In addition, as part of its US capital expansion, the company plans to establish a $1.1-billion biomedical research hub in San Diego, California, its second global R&D hub in the US. The new complex, expected to open between 2028 and 2029, will serve as the center of the Novartis West Coast Biomedical Research presence, complementing existing hubs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Basel, Switzerland. 

Source: Novartis