AbbVie Picks North Carolina for $1.4B Manufacturing Campus

The new Durham campus will support AbbVie’s immunology, neuroscience and oncology portfolio while adding 734 jobs and expanding the company’s US manufacturing base.

AbbVie is investing $1.4 billion towards a new pharmaceutical campus in Durham, North Carolina.

The news follows AbbVie’s $380 million expansion at its North Chicago, Illinois campus to add two new API manufacturing facilities for next-generation neuroscience and obesity medicines. 

Announced April 22, the project marks AbbVie’s largest capital investment in a single campus and its first major investment in North Carolina. The 185-acre site, located near Research Triangle Park, will support production of the company’s immunology, neuroscience and oncology medicines.

Construction is expected to begin in 2026 and finish by the end of 2028.

Unlike the API facility, the new Durham campus, by contrast, is geared toward small volume parenteral drug product manufacturing, including sterile injectable finished products such as vials, prefilled syringes and cartridges. AbbVie has said the site will become its US center of excellence for that work.

AbbVie said the campus will create 734 jobs over the next four years, including roles for engineers, scientists, manufacturing operators and laboratory technicians. The development is also expected to generate more than 2,000 construction jobs.

The first phase will include facilities for small volume parenteral drug product manufacturing, along with laboratories, a warehouse, administrative offices and employee wellness facilities. Small volume parenterals are sterile injectable medicines typically supplied in formats such as vials, prefilled syringes and cartridges.

Once complete, the Durham site is expected to serve as AbbVie’s US center of excellence for small volume parenteral manufacturing.

In the announcement, AbbVie Chairman and CEO Robert A. Michael said the investment expands the company’s manufacturing presence into a new US region and is intended to support future medical innovation while building a long-term presence in Durham.

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AbbVie said Durham was selected for the strength of its workforce and its capacity to support future expansion. 

The project also forms part of AbbVie’s broader $100 billion commitment to US R&D and capital investment over the next decade, including manufacturing. The company said it has committed more than $2.2 billion to US manufacturing projects over the past 12 months across North Carolina, Illinois, Arizona and Massachusetts.

This Durham expansion gives AbbVie a new manufacturing base in one of the country’s most active biopharma hubs.

The state’s pharma manufacturing base employed more than 25,000 people in 2023 and ranked third nationally, with specialized strength in biological products and pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, was ranked the second-largest biomanufacturing market in the US in 2025.

AbbVie is one among several drugmakers expanding in North Carolina. 

As early as 2022, FUJIFILM Irvine Scientific invested $188 million in a cell culture media plant in Research Triangle Park, which is set to add more than 100 jobs and produce dry-powder and liquid media under cGMP standards. Novartis’ 2025 Durham and Morrisville expansion plans span biologics manufacturing, sterile packaging and solid dosage production. Biogen committed $2 billion to Research Triangle Park in 2025, and more recently, Johnson & Johnson announced plans for a Wilson County drug product manufacturing facility focused on oncology and neurological medicines. J&J’s earlier 2024 Wilson investment was tied to innovative biologics.