Biogen to hire 150 people as part of its RTP expansion

Neuroscience drugmaker Biogen will create 150 new jobs over the next two years at its Research Triangle Park complex.

The jobs will be part of a new program, Global Business Services, which is designed to improve its services within its ranks and around the world, specifically in the areas of human resources, finance and information technology.

The initiative was kicked off Tuesday morning with an event attended by Biogen officials and politicians, including Gov. Roy Cooper and U.S. Rep. David Price.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it chose to expand in RTP because of its long history here.

Biogen, one of the Triangle's largest employers, says it has invested more than $125 million at RTP since 2016. It has been in the park 23 years and now has 1,450 employees there.

North Carolina financial incentives will not contribute to the expansion.

Since its founding in 1978, Biogen has discovered, developed and delivered drugs for people who have serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. It has focused on multiple sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy and Alzheimer's disease.

The firm says it hired 200 local contractors from 15 companies to renovate space for the new 30,000-square-foot business center, at a cost of $5 million. It has invested an additional $25 million during the past year to open the first facility in North Carolina that produces a therapy to treat genetic disorders or infections, known as anti-sense therapy. It is in RTP.

The data analytics company GlobalData reported on Tuesday that among the top 10 companies in the field, Biogen is the only neurology firm that generated more than half of its total sales from neurology products. Most of the products were for treatment of multiple sclerosis. That means the company can depend less on an increasingly competitive market, GlobalData said.

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Biogen to hire 150 people as part of its RTP expansion."