Novartis said it plans to build six new manufacturing facilities, some of which will produce pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as a new research and development center in San Diego, California.
Novartis' drugs, including the heart failure drug Entresto and the breast cancer drug Kisqali, are manufactured at 33 plants around the world.
According to Novartis, the new sites and expansions will be built over the next five years and are expected to create more than 1,000 jobs for skilled workers such as engineers and scientists, as well as another 3,000 jobs for support staff and construction workers.
The company said it has not yet decided where to build its four new manufacturing plants, but two of them, used to produce certain cancer therapies, will be built in Florida and Texas.
The announcement came two days after President Donald Trump said the US would soon announce a “big” tariff on pharmaceutical imports, sending shares of drugmakers plunging.
“We believe we can handle the tariffs, although of course they will be very painful, so while that is a factor (behind these investments), it is not the driving factor,” said Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, adding that the company intends to manufacture all the drugs it sells to Americans in the United States rather than import.
Source: Reuters
