HOLLY SPRINGS – California-based drugmaker Amgen Inc. officially broke ground this afternoon on a new manufacturing facility.
The company is promising to add more than 350 jobs to the Triangle’s biotech industry.
Amgen leadership, Gov. Roy Cooper, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, Holly Springs Mayor Sean Mayefskie and other Holly Springs leaders attended the Monday afternoon ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony.
“The world’s leading companies keep choosing Holly Springs to grow their businesses,” Mayefskie said in a news release. “This kind of seismic shift in the economic development of a town comes from a commitment at every level of government. We have the most amazing partners who believed in our mission from the very beginning, who put millions towards expanding utilities in the Friendship Innovation Park, so Holly Springs could reach the strong position it’s in today, with hundreds of acres available for Life Sciences expansion for Amgen and beyond.”
The plan is to build a 350,000-square-foot manufacturing facility valued at $550 million.
“This area had an incredible ecosystem for our industry between other companies that are here, the universities, the community colleges.,” said Amgen senior vice president manufacturing Arleen Paulino.
Amgen says the facility will employ 355 people from 2025 through 2029 at an average salary of $119,510. Amgen’s biologics plant site sits on approximately 100 acres on the northwest side of Holly Springs, just south of U.S. 1.
“The fact that they’ve chosen Holly Springs is no surprise, given the ecosystem the community has built, and it solidifies the town’s position as a leader in biomanufacturing,” said Bill Bullock, Senior VP of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Inside, Amgen will produce medicines in six therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, oncology, bone health, neuroscience, nephrology and inflammation.
“We will leverage programs we have across Amgen for developing and retaining staff,” Paulino said. “We have a talent development program in our operations organization that allows for talent development at different levels.
“This includes rotation programs, on-the-job training, etc. We will also partner with the local institutions for recruiting and training.”
Amgen’s site on Friendship Road is just a few miles from where Fujifilm-Diosynth is building a $2 billion drug manufacturing plant next to a 200-acre life sciences campus known as The Yield. The Spark is a 100-acre campus comping to Morrisville, and Jaguar Gene Therapy plans to expand in the Triangle.
“During the last five years, our focus has been on increasing life sciences jobs, and it’s paying off,” Cooper said.
NC Biotech’s Laura Rowley works to attract companies to the state. She said 2022 is already on track to be a big year for companies coming here to develop drugs and therapies that can save lives.
“With one announcement, you get recognition from your peers that then think if Amgen can do it in North Carolina, we should think about North Carolina as well,” Rowley said.
In August 2021, Amgen announced the decision to build its Holly Springs facility.
“World-class companies like Amgen are very selective when they evaluate business locations and they only choose places that provide the best support for their operations,” Cooper said in the August news release. “Today’s decision proves once again that North Carolina remains a premier location for the most innovative biotech companies in the industry.”
Amgen employs more than 24,000 worldwide.
