Fujifilm lands another drugmaker to new Holly Springs plant with $3 billion deal
Ahead of its scheduled opening later this year, the massive Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing plant in Holly Springs has added a new customer in a lucrative deal.
On Tuesday, Fujifilm Diosynth announced a 10-year agreement worth more than $3 billion to make medicines for the New York drugmaker Regeneron in the Triangle. Regeneron is the facility’s third major customer, following earlier agreements with Johnson & Johnson and TG Therapeutics.
A division of its Japanese parent Fujifilm Corp., Fujifilm Diosynth is a contract pharmaceutical manufacturer, meaning it doesn’t create drugs itself but instead mass produces drug companies’ products. Fujifilm Diosynth has had a campus in Research Triangle Park since the 1990s. In March 2021, the photography-turned-pharmaceutical company committed to invest $2 billion and bring 725 jobs to a new manufacturing site in Holly Springs, a Wake County town of 46,000 southwest of Raleigh.
This was already the Triangle’s largest life science project when, last April, Fujifilm Diosynth promised to spend an additional $1.2 billion and hire 680 more workers at the facility. Fujifilm says it currently employs over 500 workers at the site and expects to begin production during the second half of 2025 with Johnson & Johnson’s medications.
“When you think about a pharmaceutical company, they’re entrusting somebody to be able to make their babies for them,” Laurie Braxton, head of North Carolina operations at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, told The News & Observer. “Their products they put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into producing. They need to have a trusted partner.”
Fujifilm production and incentive details
Fujifilm says its Holly Springs site is projected to be the biggest cell culture contract manufacturing plant in North America, with at least 16 bioreactors — half of which are included in the initial phase and another eight slated to launch in 2028.
Regeneron has a dozen FDA-approved or authorized medicines, with its two most popular — Dupixent and Eylea — generating $10.4 billion and $5.7 billion respectively in the U.S. last year. The company employs close to 12,000 workers domestically and another few thousand abroad.
“The primary advantage of bringing Fujifilm onboard is the ability to rapidly increase (in fact nearly double) our existing manufacturing capacity in a new, nearly complete and state-of-the-art facility, versus taking many (up to 5-10) years to build and validate a new facility of our own,” Regeneron spokesperson Alexandra Bowie said in an email.
Bowie said the company doesn’t disclose site-specific production details, but Fujifilm will help Regeneron make biologic medicines like Dupixent for inflammatory diseases.
North Carolina and local governments each awarded Fujifilm Diosynth incentives to support its Triangle expansion, including up to $34.9 million in future state tax benefits should the company reach its hiring and investment targets. Combined, Wake County and Holly Springs have also offered the project local incentives worth more than $140 million.
Under its grant terms, Fujifilm must retain its approximately 600 employees in Research Triangle Park.
