Q2 Solutions Plans $73M Genomics Center of Excellence, Adding 749 Jobs in Durham

Q² Solutions, a Morrisville clinical trial laboratory services provider, announced plans today for a new $73 million precision medicine facility in Durham that is expected to create 749 jobs over seven years.

Q² (commonly referred to as Q Squared), was created in 2015 as a joint venture of IQVIA (formerly Quintiles) and Secaucus, New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics.

Governor Roy Cooper said in a morning news conference at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park that the new Q² project, to be known as the Q² Solutions Genomics Center of Excellence in NC, will grow in two phases over seven years.

The facility will be developed to transform innovative genomics testing and data into actionable medical insights that improve human health. 

The North Carolina Department of Commerce led the state’s support for the company during its site evaluation and decision-making process, with technical support from NCBiotech and partnering from several other organizations.

Wages for upper range employees to approach $90K

Although wages will vary depending on the jobs performed at the site, the company cited upper-range salaries of $89,379. The Durham County average wage is $68,731. Brian O'Dwyer, Q² CEO, said the exact location of the new facility is still in negotiations, and an announcement will be made soon on final details.

Richard Staub III, IQVIA president of R&D Solutions, said the people working at the Q² site on Miami Boulevard in Morrisville will transition to the new Durham County facility over the next several years, and the company will no longer occupy the Morrisville facility.  

Wendy Jacobs, chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, said the company has committed to employing Durham area residents with a range of educational backgrounds, and most of the 749 new jobs will not require advanced degrees. Many will be trained at Durham Technical Community College, she said, and the company has also expressed a willingness to hire "people with previous justice involvements."   

The new Durham expansion will be facilitated, in part, by two Job Development Investment Grants (JDIGs) approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee earlier today.  Over the 12-year terms of both grants, the project is projected to add more than $1 billion to North Carolina’s economy.

Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs, the first JDIG agreement, which supports the first phase of the project, authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $4,293,750, spread over 12 years. The JDIG supporting the second phase of the project is expected to go into effect in 2023 and authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $5,301,000, also paid over 12 years.

State payments only occur following performance verification by the departments of Commerce and Revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets. JDIG projects result in positive net tax revenue to the state treasury, even after taking into consideration the grant’s reimbursement payments to a given company.

The JDIG agreements also call for moving nearly $3.2 million into the state’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account. The Utility Account helps rural communities finance necessary infrastructure upgrades to attract future business.

Expanding NC's global CRO and precision health leadership

IQVIA became the world’s first contract research organization when it was founded in 1982 in a single-wide trailer on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dennis Gillings, London born and newly minted as a UNC biostatistics professor, and fellow biostatistics faculty member Gary Koch, started it as a consulting business. It’s now one of the largest CROs in the world, and North Carolina remains the global capital of the industry.

Besides labs in most major cities in the United States, Quest also has operations in India, Ireland, and Mexico. Its products and services are used by customers, including hospitals and clinics, in more than 130 countries.

Partnering with the state’s Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina and the Biotechnology Center on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, Durham County, and the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.