Novartis Reveals $23B Plan To Boost U.S. Research And Manufacturing Presence
Novartis plans to expand its U.S. manufacturing footprint to give the Swiss pharmaceutical giant the ability to produce more drugs for American consumers entirely inside the country.
Novartis said it will spend $23B over the next five years to build seven new facilities and upgrade several others to boost its U.S. research and development capabilities and secure domestic production capabilities across its supply chain.
The drugmaker announced plans to build four new manufacturing facilities in yet-to-be-determined states to stand up the new production capabilities. It is also planning a $1.1B biomedical research hub in San Diego, two new radioligand therapy manufacturing facilities in Florida and Texas, and the expansion of three existing plants in Indiana, New Jersey and California.
Radioligand therapy is a novel cancer treatment being spearheaded by Novartis.
“These investments will enable us to fully bring our supply chain and key technology platforms into the US to support our strong US growth outlook,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said in a statement. “These investments also reflect the pro-innovation policy and regulatory environment in the US that supports our ability to find the next medical breakthroughs for patients."
The outlays at existing properties are also focused on radioligand therapy. The San Diego research facility, which is expected to open in 2028 or 2029, will be the firm’s research hub on the West Coast, joining its other research centers in Boston and Basel, Switzerland.
Novartis’ stock was up roughly 2% early Friday as the broader equities market struggled to find its footing in early trading, with the major indexes largely flat after a raucous week on Wall Street.
The new manufacturing plans were announced as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to wage a bruising and murky trade war. Trump’s sweeping, and now partially suspended, tariffs are in part aimed at luring manufacturing back to the United States, whether willingly or not. Novartis is just the latest drugmaker to bulk up its domestic production capabilities.
Eli Lilly announced a $27B package that effectively doubled the drugmaker's U.S. production budget and is set to include the construction of new production facilities, with Eli Lilly saying in February that it was in negotiations with several states to build them.
Last month, Johnson & Johnson said it would spend $55B over the next four years to expand its U.S. production, including three new manufacturing sites.
Novartis said its latest investment would create 1,000 new jobs directly at the pharmaceutical giant and another 4,000 indirect U.S. jobs.
Demand for manufacturing space was rising even before Trump’s tariff dramatics, growing by 354% from 2018 through 2024. Roughly 19% of industrial requirements handled by JLL are for manufacturing space, and the brokerage expects that to grow to a quarter of space needs by 2028.
“We're in an uncertain time right now because of the goalposts moving, but the realities are that manufacturing in-region is really the future of manufacturing,” Greg Matter, head of the advanced manufacturing team at JLL, told Bisnow earlier this month.
