GSK has announced plans to invest $30 billion in R&D and supply chain infrastructure in the US over the next five years.
The UK-headquartered company said this includes a new $1.2 billion investment in advanced manufacturing facilities and artificial intelligence to deliver new biopharma factories and laboratories.
GSK said the $1.2 billion investment includes construction of a new biologics flex factory at Upper Merion, Pennsylvania to deliver new medicines for respiratory diseases COPD and asthma as well as for cancer, including haematological, gynaecological, lung and other solid tumours. Building work is due to start in 2026, the company said. GSK will also add new capabilities across its five existing manufacturing sites in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, and Montana as well as new drug substance manufacturing capabilities and enhanced device and auto-injector capabilities and assembly.
The $30 billion in funding also includes capital investments across GSK’s US supply chain, as well as increased investment in R&D drug discovery and development, and clinical trial activity. GSK said the US is expected to rank first globally for the number of studies, sites and clinical trials it conducts over the next five years. The company has committed to $2 billion in new investments in US manufacturing over the last 12 months. In October 2024, construction began of a new $800 million facility at GSK’s Marietta, Pennsylvania site.
GSK said it will continue to invest in a significant manufacturing base and more than £1.5 billion in R&D every year in the UK.
GSK is the latest life science company to announce significant investments in the US; other companies to plan big US investments include AstraZeneca, Roche, Amgen and UCB. The US administration has made no secret of its desire to have more pharmaceuticals research and manufacturing done in the US, and has threatened to introduce tariffs to encourage this.
Eli Lilly also announced that it plans to build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Richmond, Virginia. The new site will function as the company's active pharmaceutical ingredient and drug product facility for its bioconjugate platform and monoclonal antibody portfolio. At this site, Lilly will also boost its domestic manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates. Earlier this year Lilly announced plans for four new pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the US, with the Virginia facility part of the company's planned $50 billion investment programme. In contrast, investments in UK life sciences have struggled with Merck and AstraZeneca bot scaling back their plans.
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