A rendering of the future Amgen facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Image courtesy of Amgen.
Holly Springs and the surrounding Wake County in North Carolina area are actively working to recruit life sciences companies.
Those efforts are proving successful.
Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN) recently broke ground on a $550 million biomanufacturing plant in Holly Springs, a town of about 41,000 in the county. The company anticipates that the facility will be operational in 2025.
In October, Fujifilm Diosynth announced plans to build a $1.5 billion facility in Holly Springs as well. The plant could eventually employ more than 700 people. The company also anticipates the plant will be operational in 2025. It will focus on drug substance manufacturing.
Holly Springs is based near the Research Triangle Park and Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Amgen’s decision to build a plant in Holly Springs is “no surprise, given the ecosystem the community has built, and it solidifies the town’s position as a leader in biomanufacturing,” said Bill Bullock, senior vice president of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, in a press release.
“We chose Holly Springs over more than a dozen other potential locations for this new plant because the Raleigh-Durham area offers advantages that no other region could beat: an attractive and welcoming business climate, a growing reputation for life science innovation, a diverse pool of talent, and a convenient location that fits well into Amgen’s overall manufacturing and distribution network,” said Bob Bradway, Amgen’s CEO, at the groundbreaking ceremony in Holly springs.
“This area—and North Carolina in general—attracted us due to the access to great and diverse talent, and we intend to take advantage of that as we build our team,” said Bob Kenyon, vice president, site operations at Amgen, in a statement. “The culture at this site will be one of diversity, inclusion and belonging where every single person can feel comfortable in the workplace.
Amgen made the announcement on March 8.
The company received state and local incentives of approximately $35 million, according to News & Observer.
In January, the real-estate firm Crescent Communities announced that it would construct The Yield, a life sciences campus specializing in biomanufacturing, in the area.
Initial construction will focus on building two 105,000-square-foot biomanufacturing buildings that meet cGMP standards.