(The Center Square) – In a year of increasing scrutiny on health care and cost of medicines, pharmaceuticals continued to soar in importance for North Carolina through business developments, legislation and settled litigation.
The state’s top trade commodity for 2025 was pharmaceuticals, with an estimated $19.6 billion in imports and $8.6 billion in exports through August data, the latest available. Imports are up 74.2% and exports are up 13.3%.
Biogen, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., in July committed $2 billion to its North Carolina facilities. The company said its two campuses will further expand “the antisense oligonucleotide capabilities and infrastructure, establishing clinical and commercial multi-platform fill finish capabilities.”
The company’s largest manufacturing footprint is in North Carolina, with more than 1,500 employees and 400 skilled contractors in Wake and Durham counties. By volume of size, the company is the state’s largest biotechnology employer and one of the top five biopharmaceutical employers.
More than $13 million in incentives from North Carolina, plus local incentives under consideration valued at $33.5 million, are pledged to Genentech, a biotech company with American headquarters in San Francisco , making a $700 million investment. Genentech is a subsidiary of Swiss-based Roche Group.
The plans announced in May are for 420 jobs for the Wake County community of Holly Springs, just outside of Raleigh. The production facility for obesity medicines, scheduled to open by the end of 2030, would measure about 700,000 square feet.
The drug company Novartis Gene Therapies, Inc. in November announced a $771 million expansion in Durham and Wake counties it says will create 700 new jobs. Incentives from the state if hiring targets are met could reach $7.5 million.
On Jones Street and across Bicentennial Plaza to the Capitol, legislation known as the SCRIPT Act was enacted through first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s signature. The acronym is for an act supporting community retail pharmacies and improving transparency.
Regulation is enacted on pharmacy benefit managers and prescription drug pricing transparency is required. Certain price increases or introduction of costly new drugs requires manufacturers to notify the state.
In settlements through the state’s Department of Justice led by first-term Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson, payments eclipsing $1 million will go to 40 counties as part of North Carolina’s $145.4 million share of the $7.4 billion settlement with the company and family behind OxyContin.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia and four American territories are part of the settlement against Purdue Pharma led by the Sackler families. The families can no longer own, make, sell or market opioids in the United States, the settlement says.
Another brokered settlement secured $23 million for the state in a $720 million nationwide litigation with eight opioid manufacturers. Included were Mylan, now a part of Viatris; Hikma; Amneal; Apotex; Indivior; Sun; Alvogen; and Zydus.
