AbbVie has announced a $380 million investment to expand its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing operations in the US. The company plans to build two new facilities at its existing North Chicago, Illinois campus.
Construction is expected to start in spring 2026, and the facilities are expected to be fully operational in 2029. According to AbbVie, the new buildings will improve manufacturing capabilities to support the production of next-generation medicines in areas such as neuroscience and obesity.
API manufacturing involves making the chemical components that provide a drug’s therapeutic effect. The process typically includes multiple steps, specialized equipment and extensive quality checks before an ingredient can be made into a finished medicine.
AbbVie stated that the new North Chicago facilities will use advanced manufacturing technologies, including AI, to support API production. The expansion is expected to create around 300 new jobs at the site, spanning engineering, scientific, manufacturing and laboratory roles.
This project builds on a series of manufacturing investments AbbVie announced over the past year. In September 2025, the company began work on a new chemical synthesis facility at the same North Chicago campus. That project marked the first phase of AbbVie’s planned API manufacturing expansion and is intended to bring production of certain neuroscience, immunology and oncology APIs back to the US from facilities in Europe and Asia.
The new facilities are expected to expand AbbVie’s domestic API manufacturing capacity for both medicines in development and those already on the market. They will also broaden the range of manufacturing technologies available at the North Chicago site.
Illinois remains a key hub for AbbVie, where it is headquartered and employs more than 11,500 people.
In addition to its investments in Illinois, AbbVie has announced plans to acquire a device manufacturing facility in Arizona and to invest significantly at an existing manufacturing site in Massachusetts. The company is also in talks with several US states about potential future manufacturing projects and plans to announce more investments during 2026.
Manufacturing Investment in North Carolina and the US
North Carolina has recently attracted several pharma and biotech manufacturing investments across different stages of drug production.
According to North Carolina’s Economic Development Activity Report (EDAR), the state announced 81 new economic development projects through Q3 2025, representing nearly 25,000 new jobs and more than $21 billion in capital investment.
Life sciences projects accounted for $2.8 billion of that total investment during this period.
In November 2025, Novartis announced a $771 million expansion of its manufacturing operations in Durham and Wake counties. The project includes new construction and upgrades to existing facilities across three sites and is expected to create up to 700 jobs by the end of the decade. The expansion will increase Novartis’ manufacturing capacity across biologics, small-molecule medicines and finished drug products.
Biogen also outlined significant manufacturing plans. In July 2025, the company announced an additional $2 billion investment in its established manufacturing campuses in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. The plans include added production capacity and upgrades to manufacturing systems.
North Carolina also attracted large-scale investment from FUJIFILM Biotechnologies. In September 2025, FUJIFILM opened the first phase of a commercial-scale cell culture manufacturing site in Holly Springs. The facility is part of a multi-billion-dollar project designed to support both drug substance and drug product manufacturing for biologic medicines, with additional capacity planned in later phases.
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