Novartis has committed $23 billion to build seven U.S. facilities, and the final piece just landed in Morrisville, North Carolina: a 56,200-square-foot active pharmaceutical ingredient plant expected to open in 2028.
The plant will produce APIs for solid dosage tablets, capsules and RNA therapeutics. Novartis is building it in-house, and for the first time in its history, it’ll be able to run end-to-end manufacturing for all its advanced technology platforms inside the U.S.
What does the company actually get for $23 billion? Full domestic production across oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease. The push started one year ago, when President Trump threatened tariffs on the pharma industry. Novartis is writing a $23 billion check against trade risk.
Novartis will have five facilities across three sites in North Carolina once construction completes. The Durham hub will handle biologics manufacturing and sterile packaging, while Morrisville covers solid dosage tablets, capsules and the APIs that feed them. The company expects to create 700 jobs in the state by 2030. AbbVie is building a $1.4 billion plant in Durham too, part of an industry-wide rush to the state that also includes Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Roche.
The Morrisville API plant is targeted for 2028. The question hanging over all of it: if tariffs don’t materialize at scale, does a $23 billion domestic bet still make sense?
Diana Kowalski