The new plant will give Novartis end-to-end capabilities centered on North Carolina, where it plans to have five facilities across three sites.
Novartis has unveiled the seventh and final facility being built under its $23 billion U.S. expansion drive, setting out plans to construct a drug substance plant in North Carolina.
The planned 56,200-square-foot facility in Morrisville, North Carolina, will make active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for solid dosage tablets, capsules and RNA therapeutics. In its Thursday announcement, Novartis called the production site “a critical step” that will strengthen its end‑to‑end U.S. manufacturing capabilities from APIs through finished medicines.
For the first time in its history, Novartis will be equipped to perform end‑to‑end manufacturing for all its advanced technology platforms in the U.S., the company said. The capabilities are part of a push to make all key Novartis medicines for U.S. patients in the U.S.
Novartis unveiled its U.S. expansion strategy one year ago, committing $23 billion to the construction of seven facilities amid President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on the pharma industry. North Carolina is among the main beneficiaries of Novartis’ investment.
In November, Novartis outlined plans to create a manufacturing hub in the state. The company signaled its intent to build two facilities at a new site in Durham dedicated to manufacturing biologics and sterile packaging, and construct one plant at a new site in Morrisville to make solid dosage tablets and capsules, including packaging.
Novartis is building the newly disclosed API plant on the Morrisville site, which the company expects to open in 2028. The site will support therapies across oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease.
With the API plant adding to its footprint in North Carolina, the drugmaker plans to have five facilities across three sites in the state once it completes its construction program. Novartis is also expanding an existing facility in Durham to support the sterile filling of biologics into syringes and vials. Last year, Novartis said it expected to create 700 jobs in the state by 2030.
Novartis’ expansion in North Carolina is part of an industry-wide wave of investment in the state. In April, AbbVie selected North Carolina as the location for its largest-ever capital investment in one campus. The drugmaker’s $1.4 billion commitment to a plant in Durham followed investments by other companies, including Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Roche.
As well as expanding in North Carolina, Novartis has started building radioligand therapy plants in Florida and Texas. The new plants will support a facility that Novartis opened in California last year and sites in Indiana and New Jersey that are undergoing expansions.
