The Japanese company FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies announced Thursday that it's adding 680 jobs to a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Holly Springs. The move doubles the number of jobs the company plans to create at the site.
Gov. Roy Cooper said the roughly $3 billion facility will be the largest of its kind in the country.
"Our economists predict that this project will lift North Carolina's economy by more than $4.7 billion over the next dozen years, and it's pretty clear that North Carolina has become an advanced manufacturing powerhouse," Cooper said at a press conference announcing the expansion. "And it's been a particular effort of ours to focus on becoming a leading state for the life sciences."
The company could receive up to about $70 million in incentive grants from state government as well as Wake County and the town of Holly Springs.
"This facility can deliver treatments to patients suffering from a wide array of diseases, including oncology, immune and rare diseases — just to name a few," said Lars Petersen, CEO of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, a Denmark-based subsidiary of the larger Japanese company. "It will also be a tremendous asset for U. S. pandemic preparedness and securing the United States supply chain for medicine. You should all be very proud."
The announcement came hours before Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be visiting North Carolina.
Kishida's visit comes on the heels of a state dinner at the White House, alongside a meeting with President Joe Biden and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Junior.
Cooper will greet Kishida and his wife when they land at RDU Airport Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, the governor and prime minister will tour two major Japanese economic development projects — a Honda aircraft factory in Greensboro and a Toyota battery plant under construction in Randolph County.
First Lady Kristin Cooper and Kishida's wife Yuko will visit Sarah Duke Gardens in Durham for a Japanese tea ceremony. They'll also view a "friendship doll" given to North Carolina by the people of Japan in the 1920s. It now resides at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.
"We have 30,000 people in North Carolina going to work every day for a Japanese company," Cooper told reporters after the Fujifilm announcement. "Having the prime minister come to acknowledge North Carolina when he could have gone to any one of the 50 states is a big deal. And we know that foreign direct investment is essential to putting money in the pockets of North Carolina families."
