The Belgian drugmaker plans to hire about 330 people at a facility that will use advanced manufacturing technologies including AI, robotics and automation to meet rising demand for key products. This will be UCB’s first biologics manufacturing facility in the U.S.
UCB is investing $2 billion to build its first biologics manufacturing facility in the U.S., putting down roots in Georgia to support products including the psoriasis drug Bimzelx.
Belgium-based UCB unveiled plans to build a biologics manufacturing facility in the U.S. last year. At that time, the drugmaker was undertaking a feasibility study to determine the ideal U.S. location. UCB said it was prioritizing regions with strong talent pipelines, an essential consideration for a company seeking to hire at a time when many businesses are preparing to staff new U.S. production sites.
UCB has chosen Gwinnett County, Georgia, on the outskirts of Atlanta as the location of its manufacturing facility, the state’s governor announced Tuesday. The company plans to build a 460,000-square-foot plant in the county. UCB’s facility will create about 330 permanent manufacturing jobs, plus more than 1,000 construction roles, and will use advanced manufacturing technologies including AI, robotics and automation, the company said.
The company is the first global tenant at a 2,000-acre campus that is under construction in Rowen. Officials at the Rowen development said they expect design and construction to take six to seven years. The UCB project follows years of public investment in infrastructure such as water and sewer capacity to get the site ready to host companies.
Gwinnett County has committed more than $174 million in incentives such as property tax savings, fee waivers and infrastructure investment to support the project. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said a team traveled to Belgium to pitch to UCB leaders earlier this year. The efforts have secured the largest capital investment in Gwinnett County’s history.
UCB’s new manufacturing location is about 40 miles from its U.S. headquarters, which is northwest of Atlanta in the city of Smyrna. The presence of the University of Georgia, Emory University, Spelman, Georgia Gwinnett College and Georgia Tech in the region could give UCB the talent pipeline it prioritized in its search for a U.S. manufacturing base.
The investment follows calls by the Trump administration for biopharma companies to make medicines in the U.S. UCB also faces pressures to meet demand for Bimzelx, an IL-17A/IL-17F blocker that the FDA approved for use in plaque psoriasis in 2023.
U.S. Bimzelx sales increased almost sixfold last year, jumping to almost 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) to make the autoimmune drug the company’s best-selling product. Speaking on an earnings call last month, UCB CEO Jean-Christophe Tellier said the U.S. manufacturing investment will support Bimzelx production. UCB has also scaled up partnerships with contract manufacturers in the U.S.
