Fujifilm Diosynth to invest $1.5 billion to build a vaccine plant in Holly Springs
The Japanese contract drug manufacturer Fujifilm Diosynth will build a new manufacturing facility in Holly Springs and bring 725 jobs to the area over five years, following up on the company’s previously announced plans.
The Economic Investment Committee of the state Department of Commerce announced Thursday that the company’s expansion to the Triangle would represent a $1.5 billion investment from Fujifilm Diosynth by 2025. At an event announcing the expansion, Fujifilm said that investment could rise to as much as $2 billion.
Among a broad range of functions, the state-of-the-art facility will produce monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins and gene therapy solutions for pharmaceutical companies globally.
Upon completion, the facility will be the largest monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility in the world, the committee said.
The Fujifilm expansion will be similar in size to Norvo Nordisk’s $1.8 billion insulin manufacturing facility in Clayton, which broke ground in 2016. That expansion was expected to create 700 new jobs, and the state gave the company a $15.9 million Job Development Investment Grant.
In comparison, North Carolina agreed to give Fujifilm a Job Development Investment Grant worth up to $19.7 million over 12 years. The company will only get the incentive if it meets hiring and investment goals at the Holly Springs plant.
The state also put an additional $13 million of training support and transportation infrastructure into its offer. And Wake County and Holly Springs added $92 million of local incentives to the project.
On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper said Fujifilm’s expansion is a sign that North Carolina is “finding opportunity in crisis,” as the state has landed a number of economic development wins throughout the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, Google also said it would add 1,000 cloud engineering jobs in Durham.
Cooper said the state is building momentum, as it emerges from the pandemic.
“I think we will probably see a number of companies on the West Coast and from the Northeast looking at North Carolina, (specifically) in this field of biotechnology,” Cooper said. “I can see us challenging the Cambridge-Boston area because of our great universities and the workforce that we have.”
The Fujifilm jobs would pay an average annual salary of $99,848, the committee said. In addition to the 725 jobs, over 600 existing ones will be retained.
Martin Meeson, the CEO of Fujifilm Diosynth, previously told The News & Observer in January that the company wanted to expand near one of its existing facilities in the U.S., like its existing site in Research Triangle Park — one of the company’s largest.
The company was also weighing Texas as a potential landing spot for its new facility. But Meeson said the company’s previous experience in North Carolina and the collaboration with the state’s local education institutions pushed Holly Springs over the top. Fujfilm’s presence in Research Triangle Park dates to 1996.
“This is a great place to be,” Meeson said in the interview. “But I think the strongest (reasons) are around the level of talent and the creation of that talent” in the biotechnology field.
Expanding Fujifilm capabilities
The new plant will be built off State Road 1152, near the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway. It’s about 1.5 miles west of Holly Springs Towne Center on N.C. 55.
Meeson said the new facility will greatly expand the capabilities of Fujifilm to manufacture life-saving therapies for pharmaceutical companies.
The company’s Morrisville plant is currently helping make Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, churning out potentially millions of doses that can be used if that vaccine is approved by regulators.
Last summer, President Donald Trump visited the company’s facility in Morrisville as part of Operation Warp Speed, his administration’s effort to speed up the development of vaccines.
The contract with Novavax, as well as others, helped Fujifilm grow last year in the Triangle. The company added more than 100 employees last year, and it now has about 630 employees in North Carolina. The company will be required to retain those employees to earn its incentives.
But it’s also making treatments for things like prostate cancer and other diseases, Meeson said.
“The exciting thing here is just the amount of different therapeutics and vaccines we’ll be able to create and get out there into patients across America and across the world.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate. Want more on the Triangle’s tech scene? Sign up for the N&O’s weekly Innovation & Tech newsletter.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Fujifilm Diosynth to invest $1.5 billion to build a vaccine plant in Holly Springs."
