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Novartis to celebrate $600 million Holly Springs plant opening on Nov. 24.

Novartis' plant in Holly Springs

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – International drug giant Novartis (NYSE: NVS) will formally open its massive vaccine production plant in Holly Springs on Nov. 24.

Daniel Vasella, chairman and chief executive officer of Novartis, will be on hand for the opening as will Andrin Oswald, CEO of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.

The ceremony will begin at 4 p.m.

The plant is being developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has contracted with Novartis for production of H1N1 vaccine.

Novartis has already hired more than 100 people to work at the plant and plans to hire 200 more.

The 430,000 square foot plant recently installed the “reactors” in which the flu vaccine will be grown. The plant will cost $600 million. Construction has been underway for nearly two years.

Amid a bidding war for the plant, Holly Springs officials offered an economic incentive package estimated to be worth about $40 million.

Novartis will use the facility, in part, to fulfill two contracts worth a total of more than $700 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The vaccine production plant could be used to respond to pandemics.

Novartis leaders said they plan for the plant to be fully staffed and operational by the end of 2010. After undergoing inspections and licensing, the facility will make about 50 million doses of the flu vaccine annually.
 

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