Vaccine plant lifts Holly Springs

When drug maker Novartis chose Holly Springs as the site for a new vaccine plant three and a half years ago, it instantly put the southern Wake County town at the epicenter of the country's efforts to combat the flu.

The recipient of more than $700 million in government contracts to make flu vaccine, the plant is the largest of its kind under construction in the country. It will be able to produce 150 million doses within six months of the start of any future pandemic.

Although the plant is still years away from producing vaccines for patients, the main construction is finished. Novartis will open the 430,000-square-foot facility on Tuesday with a ceremony featuring the Swiss company's CEO, Daniel Vasella, and government officials.

The event is being viewed as an important milestone for the local economy.

"The fact that we've got a company in Wake County that has the capacity to vaccinate almost half the population of the United States ... is just terrific," said Ken Atkins, executive director of Wake County Economic Development. "It makes me feel very proud."

The outbreak of the H1N1 flu strain, and the difficulties the U.S. government has had in delivering the promised number of flu vaccine doses this year, led Novartis to accelerate construction of the Holly Springs plant.

In an emergency, the plant could begin producing vaccine as soon as late 2010. Before commercial production can begin, the plant must get regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration, a lengthy process that is expected to be completed by 2013.

Since the Holly Springs project was announced in 2006, its importance to the federal government has only grown.

In January, the government awarded Novartis a $486 million contract to enable the plant to provide 150 million doses of influenza vaccine within six months of the start of a pandemic. That is on top of a $220 million contract the government awarded to Novartis three years ago.

Novartis has already hired 191 full-time employees at the plant, and that number is expected to reach 350 by 2011. The jobs pay average salaries of $50,000 a year.

The Holly Springs plant will use a new vaccine manufacturing process that Novartis officials have said could save six to eight weeks of production time. Novartis' approach, which several other drug makers are also pursuing, grows flu strains in cells instead of the current method of using chicken eggs.

The plant adds to the Triangle's global reputation as a center for cutting-edge public health and biotechnology research, said Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

"It's great because they're pursuing novel technologies," he said. "We're always confronted with new infectious diseases, and we're always trying to make new vaccines. To have a factory here with a capacity for change is fantastic."

Dangling $40 million

When the Novartis deal was announced in 2006, a great deal was made about how much Holly Springs, a fast-growing town of 22,000, was willing to spend to land the drug maker.

The town borrowed $8.3 million to buy Novartis 167 acres of land, and it spent $12 million on road improvements and other infrastructure upgrades. Wake County and the state chipped in incentives that brought the total package to more than $40 million.

Tuesday's grand opening is the culmination of years of hard work by the town, said Mayor Dick Sears.

Holly Springs has long been known as a bedroom community made up almost entirely of residential subdivisions. But in recent years town officials have aggressively pursued new commercial and industrial development in order to create a more balanced local economy.

The efforts are beginning to pay off, as the percentage of Holly Springs' tax revenue that comes from industrial and commercial property has risen to 17 percent from 10 percent.

Holly Springs was one of the few municipalities in Wake County that increased its budget this fiscal year, in large part because of the $225 million Novartis has added to the tax base. The first phase of Novartis' facility covers 70 acres, meaning the company has room to expand the operation in the future.

Novartis' presence in Holly Springs has helped convince other developers that the town's future is bright.

Several large commercial projects are now on the drawing board, including the town's first hotel and a retail center that would be among the 10 largest in the Triangle. And construction is under way on the Triangle Expressway, an 18-mile toll road that will extend the 540 Outer Loop from Interstate 40 at Research Triangle Park to Holly Springs.

"There's a lot going on," said Jenny Mizelle, Holly Springs' economic development director. "We're very fortunate."

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