AbbVie breaks ground on new API facility in Illinois as part of $10B investment

AbbVie has begun construction of a new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility in North Chicago, Illinois, expanding its operations and chemical synthesis capabilities in the United States. 

The project will bring API production for select products from Europe and Asia to the U.S. to support domestic manufacturing of current and next-generation neuroscience, immunology, and oncology medicines, the company said.

“Today's groundbreaking is an important milestone in AbbVie's ongoing campaign to accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing capabilities in the U.S.,” Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, executive vice president and COO at AbbVie, said in a statement. 

AbbVie employs more than 28,000 people across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, with over 11,000 employees based in Illinois. The company said the North Chicago API project — part of a previously announced $195 million investment in Illinois — will create new jobs and expand AbbVie’s existing manufacturing footprint, which supports more than 6,000 American jobs at 11 sites nationwide.

The expansion builds on AbbVie’s earlier announcement to invest more than $10 billion over the next decade in U.S. manufacturing to support volume growth and expansion into new therapeutic areas, including obesity. That plan, which Pharma Manufacturing covered earlier this year, includes the addition of multiple new domestic facilities for API, drug product, peptide, and device production.

AbbVie has said these efforts are aimed at strengthening supply chain resilience, advancing innovation, and reshoring critical drug components to the U.S.