Amgen broke ground on its new biomanufacturing facility in Holly Springs, NC. Company officials say the new facility marks another step in the company’s plans to invest nearly $1 billion into new manufacturing capacity across the U.S.
“We chose Holly Springs over more than a dozen other potential locations for this new plant because the Raleigh-Durham area offers advantages that no other region could beat: an attractive and welcoming business climate, a growing reputation for life science innovation, a diverse pool of talent, and a convenient location that fits well into Amgen’s overall manufacturing and distribution network,” said Bob Bradway, Amgen’s chairman and CEO.
Amgen plans to invest $550 million into building the new drug substance manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, planning to bring around 355 skilled, jobs to the area. Amgen also recently broke ground on a new packaging and assembly plant in New Albany, OH and, between the two facilities, will invest more than $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing. Amgen’s current U.S. manufacturing footprint includes facilities in Juncos, Puerto Rico, Thousand Oaks, CA, and West Greenwich, RI.
“This area—and North Carolina in general—attracted us due to the access to great and diverse talent, and we intend to take advantage of that as we build our team,” said Bob Kenyon, Amgen’s NC site head. “The culture at this site will be one of diversity, inclusion and belonging where every single person can feel comfortable in the workplace.”
The site will use traditional drug substance technologies and Amgen’s latest innovations to create a hybrid facility, called FleXBatch, noted Kenyon, explaining that this technique makes drug substance manufacturing more efficient and will help Amgen achieve its company-wide sustainability goals of reducing water use by 40 percent, cutting waste disposal by 75 percent and becoming carbon neutral by the year 2027.
“This new FleXBatch plant exemplifies Amgen’s approach to innovative and sustainable biomanufacturing which we are now calling Amgen Ecovation,” added Bradway. “This new name underscores what is today and has always been distinctive about biomanufacturing at Amgen: It is highly innovative, efficient, safe, and environmentally sustainable, all in the service of benefiting patients with medicines manufactured according to the highest quality standards.”
Manufacturing operations are expected to start in 2025, with licensure anticipated the following year.
