Bristol Myers Squibb(BMS) is bringing a $2.3 billion drug manufacturing campus and 500 jobs to Houston.
The New Jersey-based pharmaceutical manufacturer said in anAug. 10 announcement that it had selected the city for the 600,000-square-foot campus, which will be built to speed up the delivery of what it calls "next-generation medicines to patients."
"This investment reflects our confidence in America's continued leadership in biopharmaceutical innovation,” Christopher Boerner, board chair and CEO of BMS, said. “As part of our $40 billion commitment to the United States, we're building the domestic manufacturing capabilities needed to deliver the next generation of medicines and support future scientific breakthroughs. Houston and the state of Texas
offer the talent, infrastructure, and partnership needed to help bring that vision to life."
The campus is set to be built at Generation Park in Houston and will be a modular, multi-modal campus designed for flexibility and long-term growth, according to the company.
BMS also noted that it chose Texas — specifically Generation Park — for its 4,300-acre "curated hub for life sciences and advanced manufacturing" among other key factors.
The company's announcement drew praise from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the investment a testament to the state's skilled workforce and "the pipeline of talent coming through our nation-leading technical colleges and research universities."
"With lower operating costs and easy access to markets across the U.S. and the world, Texas drives affordability for consumers," Abbott said.
Abbott also announced that A Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant of $4.89 million has been extended to BMS for the project. The TEF is a grant awarded to a business relocation or expansion project in which one Texas site competes with out-of-state locations to create new, good-paying jobs and attract significant new capital investment to the state.
The expansion is also a qualified project under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) program.
What Bristol Myers Squibb will make at Texas campus
“This facility is designed to deliver the speed, quality, and reliability that patients depend on, combining flexible, modular manufacturing with advanced digital capabilities to ensure consistent supply across multiple modalities. It strengthens our ability to operate with resilience and positions us to reliably deliver medicines to patients today while adapting future demands,” Karin Shanahan, BMS' executive vice president and chief supply chain and operations officer, said.
Its modular design, according to the company, will allow it to add and reconfigure manufacturing capacity as needed while also enabling it to manufacture multiple types of medicines — such as small molecules, biologics and antibody-drug conjugates — across a range of disease areas.
How many jobs will campus create?
The new BMS campus is projected to employ nearly 500 people initially, according to the company, with roles spanning operations technicians, production specialists, maintenance and engineering professionals, quality control and assurance experts and site leadership and administration.
BMS said it expects to create approximately 2,000 construction and other indirect jobs between 2027 and 2030 as the facility is built and brought online.
Mateo Rosiles is the Texas Connect reporter for USA TODAY and its regional papers in Texas. Got a news tip for him? Email him at mrosiles@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pharmaceutical giant to build $2.3B plant, create 500 jobs in Texas
