Roche’s Genentech more than doubles investment in NC manufacturing site to $2B

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, announced Tuesday it is increasing its investment in a new drug manufacturing facility under construction in Holly Springs, North Carolina, from $700 million to more than $2 billion. The expansion will augment production volume, scale capacity, and “significantly” increase the facility’s output, according to the company. However, no specifics were provided in the announcement to quantify those metrics.

While Genentech did not quantify specific production volume and manufacturing capacity, a company spokesperson in an emailed statement to Pharma Manufacturing said the square footage of the Holly Springs facility remains unchanged at 700,000 square feet.

“From the outset, we designed the Holly Springs facility to accommodate additional production capacity and increased manufacturing over time,” the Genentech spokesperson said. “As our plans advanced, we identified opportunities to significantly increase production capacity and output while remaining within the facility’s original exterior design and construction footprint.”

The company’s spokesperson added that the expansion is “a good example of how large, long-term manufacturing investments evolve as business needs become clearer and projects move from announcement to execution.”

Work in progress

Construction started in August 2025 on Genentech’s Holly Springs site, which will be the drugmaker’s first East Coast manufacturing facility. In May 2025, the South San Francisco-headquartered company announced plans to build a new 700,000-square-foot plant for more than $700 million to support its pharma division’s metabolic medicines portfolio, such as obesity medication.

Slated to be operational by 2029, the planned expansion of the Holly Springs facility “reflects Genentech’s continued confidence in the region’s community, workforce, and long-term growth potential,” according to Tuesday’s announcement.

Genentech “decided to increase its investment in Holly Springs, a growing hub for biopharmaceutical innovation, because of its highly skilled local workforce, strong academic institutions, and proximity to other leading life science companies in the Raleigh-Durham area,” the company said.

Leveraging advanced biomanufacturing, automation, and digital tools, the revised investment of more than $2 billion in the site “will boost efficiency and sustainability while significantly expanding Genentech’s U.S.-based supply chain,” according to the drugmaker.  

Genentech noted that the increased investment is expected to result in an additional 100 new jobs in North Carolina, with the capital expenditure supporting more than 500 high-wage manufacturing jobs and 1,500 construction jobs. Previously, the company said its $700 million investment would add more than 400 manufacturing jobs.  

Last year, Roche announced plans to invest $50 billion in its pharmaceutical and diagnostics operations in the U.S. over the next five years. The investment is meant to support the development of new research and manufacturing facilities across several states and is expected to generate more than 12,000 new jobs.

However, Roche warned in May 2025 that if President Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing executive order were to go into effect, it would jeopardize the company’s ability to invest $50 billion in its U.S. R&D and manufacturing sites. Since then, the Trump administration has negotiated MFN deals with 16 drugmakers to lower prescription drug prices for Americans, including Roche’s Genentech.

Under its drug pricing agreement with the White House, Genentech secured a three-year exemption from tariffs enabling its “continued investment and expansion of its manufacturing footprint in the U.S.” Roche and Genentech’s current U.S. footprint includes 13 manufacturing and 15 R&D sites across its pharmaceutical and diagnostics divisions, with 25,000 employees in 24 sites across eight states.

Holly Springs emerges as hub

Genentech isn’t the only major company to invest in the Holly Springs area in recent years. In September 2025, contract manufacturer Fujifilm Biotechnologies held the grand opening of its $3.2 billion biomanufacturing site in Holly Springs — one of the largest commercial-scale cell culture manufacturing sites in North America, according to the company.

California-based biotechnology company Amgen added $1 billion in investment to expand its production footprint in Holly Springs. The biotech is building a second drug substance manufacturing facility, having previously committed $550 million, bringing its total planned investment in the area to more than $1.5 billion.

Switzerland-based injection system manufacturer Ypsomed is investing approximately $248 million to establish a new production facility in Holly Springs — the company’s first manufacturing facility in the U.S.