Biogen plans to invest $2B into its RTP manufacturing facilities
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Biogen, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies, plans to invest $2 billion and build a new manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park.
Why it matters: Biogen is one of RTP's largest employers with more than 1,500 workers in Durham County. The latest investment will help it expand its manufacturing capabilities in North Carolina.
Between the lines: Investment into pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing remains on fire in the Triangle, with Biogen representing just the latest in a string of jobs announcements.
- The biotechnology company Genentech said earlier this year it plans to add 400 jobs in Holly Springs, and Amgen and Fujifilm Diosynth recently completed manufacturing facilities there as well.
- Last year, Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of drugs like Ozempic, announced a planned $4 billion investment in facilities in Johnston County.
Zoom in: The investment will help the drug maker build its eighth manufacturing facility in North Carolina, Biogen said in a statement. The company makes a variety of treatments, including for multiple sclerosis, and has a pipeline of products being tested for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases.
- Biogen declined to share details about the kind of hiring it'll do as a result of its latest investment. A spokesperson said it will support "key programs" including multiple potential investigational candidates, including felzartamab, salanersen, litifilimab and zorevunersen and BIIB080.
- Biogen is not applying for any incentives for this expansion, the spokesperson added.
- In 2023, the company laid off some workers due to the bumpy launch of an Alzheimer's treatment, Fierce Biotech reported.
The big picture: The Triangle, which the real estate services firm JLL pegs as the fourth-largest life sciences market in the country, has a lower vacancy rate than its larger peers for life science space.
- That's primarily due to a combination of the region not building as much as markets like Boston and San Diego since the pandemic, plus a number of biomanufacturing wins, according to Eric Forshee, JLL's executive vice president for life sciences at its Raleigh office.
- "North Carolina, especially on the biomanufacturing side, has good affordable land, quality sites, great talent and good incentives," Forshee told Axios.
What's next: Reuters noted that Biogen is one of several drug makers that have announced investments amid the threat of a 200% tariff on imported drugs from the Trump administration, though Biogen's announcement made no mention of tariffs.
It remains to be seen how tariffs could help or hinder biomanufacturing in the Triangle.
- Forshee said there has been an uptick in the number of corporate tours being taken in the region this year, in part, because of the tariff announcements.
- "It's still yet to be seen if that will lead to transactions over this year, as people are still navigating what's really going to be the final decisions by this administration," he said.