Johnson & Johnson’s second facility in Wilson, North Carolina, is part of a $55 billion push to make all advanced medicines used in the U.S. domestically.
Johnson & Johnson is set to create 500 jobs in North Carolina by building its second production plant in the state in quick succession.
The facility is part of the $55 billion commitment to U.S. manufacturing and R&D that the company made in March. Having already begun work on a biologics manufacturing facility in Wilson, North Carolina, J&J has now outlined plans to build a drug product manufacturing facility nearby.
In a statement, the office of North Carolina Governor Josh Stein said the newly disclosed drug product facility will help deliver oncology and neurological disease treatments and is another multibillion-dollar investment in Wilson. The city is around 40 miles east of Raleigh, the state capital and a life sciences hub.
J&J shared details of the facility as part of the news that it has reached a drug pricing agreement with the Trump administration. Like its peers, J&J committed to developing and making medicines in the U.S. to secure tariff relief. J&J CEO Joaquin Duato discussed the deal and the company’s manufacturing strategy on Monday at the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
“Our goal is that, at the completion of our $55 billion investment plan, essentially all the advanced medicines that are used in the U.S. will be manufactured here in the U.S. And I think that’s great. It’s great for the country, it’s great to create jobs and it’s great to create more resiliency in our supply chain,” Duato said.
J&J unveiled its first project in Wilson in October 2024. At that time, it set out plans to invest $2 billion in a pharmaceutical manufacturing campus for innovative biologics that will create 420 jobs. J&J broke ground on the biologics facility last year and is ramping up hiring of people to work at the site. Factoring in construction, the company expects the project to create around 5,000 jobs in North Carolina.
Work on the facilities is advancing in parallel with the expansion of a plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina, a town around 60 miles west of Wilson. J&J secured a dedicated, 160,000-square-foot facility at Fujifilm’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Holly Springs in August and committed $2 billion to expand the plant over the next 10 years. The pharma company expects the expansion to create 120 jobs.
And J&J is not the only Big Pharma making manufacturing investments in North Carolina. Amgen outlined plans to invest $1 billion in a manufacturing plant in Holly Springs in 2024. The biopharma company said the project, which followed a $550 million investment in the state in 2022, will create 370 jobs. Merck and Roche have also targeted North Caroline for their reshoring activities.
