Governor Announces State Wins $268 Million Pharmaceutical Plant

Governor Mike Easley announced July 18 Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Novartis AG of Basel, Switzerland, will spend $276.5 million on a plant in Holly Springs that is expected to employ 350 people within five years. The company will receive cash grants, land, tax credits and other incentives worth more than $41 million from state and local governments. The governor said Novartis’ decision “strengthens our national reputation as a biotechnology center.” The plant could be the first in the country to make influenza vaccines from cell cultures rather than from eggs. Novartis expects to produce 50 million doses annually and would have the capacity to produce 150 million doses in a pandemic, according to the company’s CEO. He also indicated one of the main reasons for selecting the state was the availability of a highly trained workforce.

The 300,000-square-foot plant will go on 167 acres the town is buying in the Holly Springs business park near the N.C. 55 bypass. Construction is scheduled to begin next year and the plant will be operational by 2011. Holly Spring has tried to lure other companies and recently lost a $660 million Bristol-Myers Squibb drug manufacturing plant to Massachusetts. But the Novartis plant should help the town lure more large companies, according to local economic development officials. (Raleigh News & Observer, July 19, 2006) (HMF/7/31/06)