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Less than a month after announcing a $50 billion investment in its U.S. operations over the next five years, Swiss pharma giant Roche RHHBY has started rolling out the details of its plans.
RHHBY unveiled plans to invest over $700 million in a new 700,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art drug manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, NC. Through this new plant, the company intends to support its pipeline of next-generation obesity drugs for Genentech, a member of the Roche group.
Roche expects the project to generate over 1,500 construction jobs and more than 400 high-wage, permanent positions once it is operational. In a press release, Roche mentioned that it could further expand the initial investment in this plant based on "business needs and the US policy environment."
RHHBY also announced plans to expand its diagnostic site in Indianapolis. In this regard, it plans to spend up to $550 million by 2030 to establish the site as "a major hub for the manufacturing" of the company’s continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems. Per Roche, this expansion will "create hundreds of jobs while also enhancing U.S. production capabilities."
RHHBY Stock Performance
Year to date, shares of Roche have risen 13% against the industry’s 6% decline.
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Here’s Why RHHBY is Expanding Its Manufacturing Presence in US
These investments reflect Roche’s broader commitment to strengthening its U.S. infrastructure amid Trump’s proposed tariffs on pharmaceutical imports. The company’s U.S. footprint currently includes 13 manufacturing and 15 R&D sites across its Pharmaceutical and Diagnostics Divisions in eight states.
Trump has announced plans to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical imports (which have been largely exempt until now) to incentivize drugmakers to relocate their operations to the United States. He stated that the United States offers a very big market, and the new tariffs will propel pharmaceutical companies to rush back to the country.
Per reports, the United States imports large amounts of finished drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from other countries.
Big Pharma Commits Over $100B to US Expansion
Similar to Roche, several other large pharmaceutical companies have earmarked investments to expand their manufacturing presence in the country.
Eli Lilly LLY was one of the first pharma companies to unveil investment plans. In February, LLY announced plans to invest $27 billion in building four new manufacturing sites in the United States in 2025, bringing its total domestic manufacturing expansion commitments since 2020 to more than $50 billion. Previously, from 2020 to 2024, Lilly committed more than $23 billion to domestic capital expansion. The increased manufacturing investment can boost production capacity for its medicines, particularly its popular GLP-1 products, Mounjaro and Zepbound.