North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said Monday that Genentech, the U.S. subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, will build a 700,000-square-foot facility in Holly Springs, creating more than 400 jobs. He shared the news during the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington, D.C.
“World-class companies like Genentech recognize that North Carolina is a leading state for biotechnology,” Stein said. “These companies know our life science workforce is ready to help them deliver their cutting-edge medicines to the world.”
The Holly Springs plant will support high-volume fill-finish operations for Genentech’s current product portfolio and its pipeline of next-generation therapies, including obesity treatments.
“This new facility will serve as an important part of our manufacturing network to help deliver on the promise of our life-changing science,” Genentech CEO Ashley Magargee said in a statement.
The facility will be Genentech’s first manufacturing site on the East Coast and its first presence in North Carolina.
The state’s Economic Investment Committee approved a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) to support the project. The grant could reimburse the company up to $9.8 million over 12 years if job creation and investment targets are met. The project is expected to grow North Carolina’s economy by more than $3 billion during that period.
Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley said the announcement reflects years of investment in workforce development and infrastructure by the state and partners such as the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
The Holly Springs investment is part of Roche’s larger U.S. expansion plan. In April, the company announced it would spend $50 billion over five years to build and expand manufacturing and research facilities across the country. Projects include a diagnostics hub in Indianapolis, a continuous glucose monitoring plant in Indiana, and a gene therapy facility in Pennsylvania.
Roche employs about 25,000 people in the U.S. and operates 13 manufacturing sites and 15 research and development centers. The company said the new North Carolina facility could see further investment in the future depending on business needs and the U.S. policy environment.
The move also comes amid renewed trade policy tensions. In recent weeks, the Trump administration proposed broad tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, including a previously threatened 31% tariff on Swiss goods. Roche has stated that it plans to export more medicines from the U.S. than it imports.
Roche reported global sales of more than 60 billion Swiss francs (about $74 billion) last year, with nearly $25 billion of that coming from its pharmaceutical division in the United States.
The Holly Springs site places Roche among several major life sciences firms investing in the state, including CSL Seqirus, Amgen and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies. The area is adjacent to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, one of the country’s leading biotech and R&D hubs.
