Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, plans to open the facility in 2029 to ramp up capacity to make obesity candidates, including the dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist CT-388.
Roche is more than doubling its investment in a North Carolina Genentech manufacturing facility that is central to its plans to enter the obesity market.
Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, shared plans to invest more than $700 million in a 700,000-square-foot drug manufacturing plant in Holly Springs in May and broke ground on the facility in August. On Tuesday, the company said it is raising its investment in the facility to around $2 billion to install more capacity and increase output.
The expansion will create around 100 additional jobs, Genentech said, upping the expected employment at the site to more than 500. Genentech expects the facility, its first East Coast production plant, to be operational in 2029.
Roche is investing in the plant to support its ambitions to be a top three player in obesity. While Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have secured the top two positions, at least for now, Roche, Pfizer and other companies are investing heavily in weight loss drug development in the belief the massive market can support at least three major players.
The targeted 2029 opening of the Holly Springs plant aligns with Roche’s obesity strategy. The company expects to present Phase III–enabling data on five obesity candidates this year, including results from a midphase study of CT-388. As a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, the injectable CT-388 has the same mechanism of action as Lilly’s market-leading Mounjaro and Zepbound.
At an investor event in September, Roche CEO Teresa Graham said the company will use internal and external capacity to support clinical trials of CT-388 and the drug’s initial launch. Eventually, Roche will bridge to a primarily internal supply chain, Graham said.
The executive said the purpose of building Holly Springs is to make sure Roche has a “large volume throughput device facility.” Graham was responding to an analyst who said devices have been the biggest bottleneck for current obesity players. With the Holly Springs project underway, Graham said analysts “can be very confident that we will be entering with devices in the places where devices are necessary.”
Roche’s expanded commitment to Holly Springs is another boost for a town that has been a beneficiary of biopharma’s recent investments in U.S. manufacturing thanks to political pressure from President Donald Trump. Amgen committed $1 billion to a plant in Holly Springs in late 2024, bringing total spending on the site above $1.5 billion. Fujifilm Biotechnologies opened a manufacturing facility in the town last year.
Justin Claeys, senior vice president of finance at Amgen, said at the TD Cowen Health Care Conference in March that the company’s Holly Springs plant is a high-yield drug substance facility. The site will support multiple products, with the obesity drug candidate MariTide among the drivers of the investment, Claeys said.
With Amgen and Roche planning to make GLP-1 drugs in Holly Springs, the town will play a central role in the production of therapies that could compete in the obesity market. Genentech cited the skilled local workforce and proximity to other leading life sciences companies in the Raleigh-Durham area as drivers for its decision to invest in Holly Springs. The town is around 20 miles south of Research Triangle Park.
