Roche-owned Genentech has tapped the Northwestern state of Oregon as home to a new, $750m injectable manufacturing facility – expanding its presence in the city of Hillsboro and further bolstering its presence on American soil.
The Swiss pharma giant plans to build the end-to-end fill-finish production site on the same campus as its current Hillsboro manufacturing facility, and it will will primarily produce a range of portfolio and pipeline injectables from both Roche and its subsidiary, Genentech.
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To account for changing manufacturing demand, Roche has also put together a flexible blueprint for the site, meaning it will be able to fill both low and high-volume autoinjectors and pre-filled syringes. The company puts these plans in place as the industry’s focus increasingly shifts towards convenient dosing formats suitable for at-home use.
While Roche has not disclosed which specific medicines it will produce at its new site, the company currently offers a range of drugs in its portfolio arsenal that are delivered via pre-filled syringe. This includes rare autoimmune disease therapy, Enspryng (satralizumab), as well as anaemia-tackling medications like Neorecormon (epoetin beta) and Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol epoetin beta).
During the Hillsboro build, Roche expects to hire around 200 construction workers, who will work on the site until its expected completion in 2031. Once the facility is operational, it will house around 250 skilled manufacturing specialists.
Big pharma’s US onshoring push
Once operational, Roche’s new Hillsboro facility will further expand the company’s presence in the US, which includes 13 manufacturing sites situated across several states. The Oregon site, however, is not the only ongoing production footprint expansion project Roche has in the works.
Recently, the Swiss pharma giant completed the structural framework for its $2bn Holly Springs, North Carolina biomanufacturing site, which will produce therapies for metabolic conditions as Roche eyes a slice of the rapidly growing obesity market.
Roche’s efforts to boost its manufacturing presence run parallel to a wider trend within big pharma, as companies outlay billions of dollars to build production sites in the US. This shift follows mounting pressure from the Trump administration to onshore drug manufacturing in exchange for tariff reprieve.
Previously, experts told Pharmaceutical Technology that the onshoring revolution is giving rise to new biotech hubs around the country, with locations like North Carolina, Virginia and Texas grabbing the attention of pharma for their affordability, strong workforce and favourable tax environments for businesses.
