Amgen’s Holly Springs facilities to employ more than 700 by 2032
Not often is a company able to cut a ribbon for a new facility and hold a groundbreaking ceremony for another, on the same day, from the same stage. Amgen, the $30+ billion biotech company, accomplished that unique double-play on Friday, at an event at its growing campus in Holly Springs.
Amgen executives and employees, local and state elected dignitaries, and an assortment of other local economic development officials and businesspeople gathered in a large white tent to toast the company’s recently completed $550 million facility that it had announced in 2021.
Once the big scissors cut the Amgen-branded ribbon, attention turned to the next ceremony – lifting the Amgen-branded shovels to break ground on the company’s recently announced biomanufacturing expansion, which will add more than $1 billion to its initial investment and 370 more high-paying jobs.
“We will employ upwards of 700 area residents by 2032, working across a range of functions including manufacturing, quality, engineering and the science of process development,” said Amgen Chairman and CEO Robert A. Bradway.
Partnering with Wake Tech
Bradway went on to praise the state’s ready workforce and pro-business climate, adding that the company was proud to also have a "partnership with Wake Technical Community College to offer manufacturing apprenticeships to area workers, with the right skills, even if they might not yet have a four-year college degree.
“This is one of the first ever such biomanufacturing apprenticeship programs in North Carolina and one of the most comprehensive programs in the United States,” Bradway said, adding that the facilities will further strengthen Amgen’s ability to provide uninterrupted supply of our medicines to heart disease, cancer and patients suffering from other serious illnesses.
“In sum, we feel, and I hope you will agree, that this is a win-win proposition for all of us – a facility that expands our capacity to serve patients with serious diseases, a facility that will generate jobs and economic opportunity in the Holly Springs community, and a facility that will help bolster North Carolina’s already strong reputation for life sciences innovation,” Bradway said.
The Holly Springs site will use traditional drug substance manufacturing technologies and Amgen’s latest innovations to operate a hybrid facility called FleXBatch. By increasing efficiencies in manufacturing, this approach will help Amgen achieve its company-wide sustainability goals of reducing water use by 40%, cutting waste disposal by 75% and becoming carbon neutral by 2027.
Amgen: a biotech pioneer
Amgen was founded in 1980 to develop biopharmaceuticals using new recombinant DNA and gene-cloning technologies. Since then, the company has grown to become a global leader in developing biotherapeutics for a wide range of diseases. Major brand names include Enbrel, Neulasta, Otezla, Prolia, Repatha and XGEVA.
Amgen sells products in about 100 countries and reported $28.2 billion in revenues in 2023. The company employs 23,000 people worldwide, and about 14,000 of them work in the United States.
In 2024, Amgen was named one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company and one of “America’s Best Large Employers” by Forbes.