Starting next year, GSK plans to demolish existing buildings and construct new facilities to support clinical and commercial supply. The investment will create more than 300 new jobs over the next five years, Pennsylvania state officials said.
GSK is investing more than $800 million to create an innovation and manufacturing hub in Pennsylvania.
The drugmaker will use the money to expand its operations in Upper Merion Township, a location on the outskirts of Philadelphia where it already has drug discovery and development capabilities, state officials said Friday. Starting next year, GSK will demolish existing buildings and construct new facilities.
Buildings slated for construction include a biologics production facility to support clinical and commercial supply and a co-located R&D pilot plant “to accelerate tech transfer and process development,” according to the announcement from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger. GSK also plans to build a centralized quality control lab and a manufacturing science and technology hub at the site.
“Investing in additional commercial and R&D manufacturing with advanced digital capabilities at our Upper Merion site will help accelerate the development and supply of future medicines for patients,” Regis Simard, president of GSK global supply chain, said in a statement.
GSK has yet to share further details of the digital capabilities planned for the new facilities. The company previously disclosed investments in AI and digital capabilities at its five existing U.S. manufacturing sites.
State officials expect the $800 million investment in Upper Merion to create more than 300 new jobs over the next five years. Officials added that GSK will retain about 4,500 existing full-time jobs across Pennsylvania.
News of the investment comes 13 months after GSK outlined plans to construct an additional biologics flex factory at Upper Merion to make medicines for respiratory disease and cancer. GSK designs its flex factories to enable quick switches between different types of medicines, often using modular equipment and standardized processes. The expansion formed part of a broader, $1.2 billion investment plan.
Two years ago, GSK committed $800 million to expand another campus in Pennsylvania. The earlier investment supported the construction of an R&D pilot plant and vaccines drug substance facility at a site in Marietta, Pennsylvania.
GSK’s latest investment in Pennsylvania is eligible for tax benefits through the Qualified Manufacturing Innovation and Reinvestment Deduction program and the Manufacturing Tax Credit initiative. The tax benefits are part of a range of incentives that Pennsylvania has used to attract investment from pharma companies including Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson in recent years.
London-based GSK has invested in Pennsylvania while exiting other locations. Over the past two years, GSK has transferred facilities in China, Singapore and Maryland to outsourcing partners and closed an antibiotic plant in the U.K. The drugmaker also stopped manufacturing operations at a site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, converting the location into a dedicated R&D operation.
