The company will be heavily investing over the next decade to build a new biopharmaceutical plant in Holly Springs, NC, creating 120 jobs and reinforcing its $55 billion pledge to strengthen US manufacturing, R&D, and innovation.
Johnson & Johnson is all in on domestic manufacturing.
The company announced plans to boost its North Carolina presence by constructing a 160,0000-plus-square-foot manufacturing facility at FUJIFILM’s new biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Holly Springs, NC.
The $2 billion investment in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) over the next decade is expected to help grow JNJ’s U.S. manufacturing services. It is also anticipated to create approximately 120 new jobs in the state.
The latest financial commitment is one of several upcoming moves that JNJ intends to make over the next few months. Also forthcoming are plans for US site expansion projects, along with an additional slate of new advanced manufacturing plants in the United States.
“Johnson & Johnson has more manufacturing facilities in the US than in any other country, and we continue to strengthen our presence here,” said Joaquin Duato, J&J’s chairman and CEO. “With the recent signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, we continue to expand our investment in the US to lead the next era of healthcare innovation.”
Also known as the OBBA, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reshapes prescription drug spending, while pushing pharma companies mitigate its potential impact on innovation, R&D investment, and M&A activity.
“Starting out with the One Big Beautiful Bill, I kind of look at a couple things that are happening at the same time,” explained Philip Sclafani, PwC’s pharmaceutical and life sciences lead, in a recent interview with Pharma Commerce. “The OBBBA passed, and that’s primarily impacting the government side of things, so Medicaid, a little bit of Medicare, and then the ACA exchange plans … There are significant trends and inflators going on over there, with the rise of GLP-1s and some behavioral health neurosciences, as well as some deflators, with the biosimilars coming in and having an impact. I focus on the totality of it. If you look at all the big trends, that’s really what’s driving a lot of pharmacy benefits and prescription drug strategies. If you look at pharma companies from multiple angles facing potential loss of sales, having less patients insured on the Medicaid side and ACA exchanges certainly will impact the availability of those patients to use, access, and pay for prescription drugs, particularly specialty medications. Regarding higher cost, there’ll be a challenge there.
“We think about those patients unfortunately not being able to get all the prescriptions they would want, spending and pharma company revenues going down there. On the other side, we do see significant innovation coming in from newer therapies, obviously GLP-1s continuing to grow, and others. So I think it’s important to look at the totality. It’s a challenging environment … I think the natural response you look at is there is a near-term revenue gap for some, so that’s prioritizing and accelerating R&D investments, looking at M&A activity that adds revenue now, but also has some longer-term either indication expansion or pipeline potential.”
This past March, J&J had pledged $55 billion to support domestic manufacturing, research and development, and tech investments over the next four years. Progress is also moving forward on its Wilson, NC facility, which is anticipated to support over 500 permanent jobs (once it becomes operational) and produce roughly 5,000 construction jobs during development. Further investments are being directed toward expanding R&D capabilities to advance treatments in oncology, neuroscience, immunology, cardiovascular disease, and robotic surgery.
The J&J news follows various players in the space also deciding to commit to US manufacturing efforts as a way to avoid paying steep tariffs. AbbVie is financially committing more than $10 billion of capital in the US toward manufacturing services and increasing capacity, adding to the existing pharma manufacturers that have starting reshoring the production processes back to the US to avoid steep tariffs.
This includes a combined $53 billion by Regeneron and Roche to improve their manufacturing and R&D infrastructure, $1 billion by Merck, and $2 billion by Thermo Fisher. AstraZeneca plans to invest $50 billion by 2030 in US-based drug manufacturing and R&D, marking its largest single manufacturing investment globally.
References
1. Johnson & Johnson Continues US Investment with $2 Billion Commitment to Enable Manufacturing at State-Of-The-Art North Carolina Facility. Johnson & Johnson. August 21, 2025. Accessed August 21, 2025. https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/johnson-johnson-continues-u-s-investment-with-2-billion-commitment-to-enable-manufacturing-at-state-of-the-art-north-carolina-facility
2. Saraceno N. Facing a Crossroads. Pharma Commerce. August 5, 2025. Accessed August 21, 2025. https://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/view/facing-a-crossroads
3. Saraceno N. Trump Executive Order Targets Domestic API Stockpile to Strengthen US Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. Pharma Commerce. August 14, 2025. Accessed August 21, 2025. https://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/view/trump-executive-order-domestic-api-stockpile-pharma-supply-chain
