Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will invest $2bn into a new drug manufacturing facility in North Carolina, US, as the pharma giant begins to outline how it will spread a $55bn pot announced earlier this year to boost domestic manufacturing.
The investment arrives via a ten-year deal with contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Fujifilm Biotechnologies. The drugmaker has outlaid more than $2bn over the period for a 160,000ft² manufacturing facility at Fujifilm’s new manufacturing hub in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
J&J did not reveal what it would use the new facility for and provided little information on timelines, although Fujifilm has said separately that the Holly Springs hub will operate on large-scale cell culture manufacturing of bulk drug substances.
Fujifilm hopes for the hub to become operational in 2025 and has so far injected $3.2bn into the site.
Regeneron is also set to become an incumbent of the hub, agreeing a $3bn deal – similarly lasting ten years – with Fujifilm in April 2025.
In March 2025, J&J announced it would invest $55bn to bolster US manufacturing operations. This strategy, which includes the building of four new manufacturing sites, comes amid an ongoing push by US President Donald Trump for the country to become less reliant on pharmaceutical imports from overseas countries.
A main way to accomplish this is via increased onshoring of drug manufacturing, and J&J has become just one of many pharma companies to redirect investment amid tariff-mediated pressure from the president. Roche outlaid a similar amount to J&J, planning $50bn worth of investment in the US. Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca have also committed to billion-dollar spending to bolster manufacturing in the US.
J&J has plans beyond just the Holly Springs facility, saying it will share “plans for advanced manufacturing facilities in the US, as well as the expansion of current US manufacturing” in the coming months.
The drugmaker has already started constructing a facility in Wilson, around 85km east of Holly Springs, North Carolina. The site, which will manufacture biologics, was announced by J&J with a $2bn investment in October 2024.
J&J’s CEO Joaquin Duato said: “J&J has more manufacturing facilities in the US than in any other country, and we continue to strengthen our presence here.
“With the recent signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, we continue to expand our investment in the US to lead the next era of healthcare innovation.”
