Amgen is pumping hundreds of millions more into the U.S. territory after adding $650 million in investment plans to its long-term operations in Puerto Rico last year.
Amgen is spending an additional $300 million to expand its Juncos location in Puerto Rico, which was founded in 1992 and forms a key part of the company’s global manufacturing network serving more than 60 countries around the world.
With the investment upgrade, Amgen’s total commitments to its U.S. operations over the past year now approach $2 billion, the company said in a May 4 release.
The company announced in late September that it would expand its Juncos facility to increase production of biologics and add hundreds of new jobs. As of 2022, the site consisted of more than 20 buildings and was home to thousands of employees, according to Amgen’s website.
The move comes amid a flurry of U.S. financial commitments from the industry as drugmakers try to grapple with vague and sometimes contradictory import tariff policy proposals from the U.S. government.
Amgen is one of 17 major drug companies to sign a “most-favored-nation” drug pricing agreement with the White House, which also provides temporary relief from the Trump administration’s drug tariffs. In early April, the president announced that he would impose 100% tariffs on certain patented medicines imported from outside the United States, as well as a number of carve-outs to avoid tariffs, including industry MFN agreements and national trade agreements, such as those with the EU, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
“Amgen has been a leader in U.S. biomanufacturing for decades, and this expansion reflects our continued commitment to U.S. manufacturing,” Amgen CEO Robert Bradway said in a statement Monday. “By expanding our operations in Puerto Rico, we are ensuring patients have access to the medicines they need, investing in the long-term strength of our domestic supply chain, and supporting American jobs.”
Regarding the new $300 million in spending, the company did not signal any changes in strategy or adjustments to the hiring plans it unveiled in its original project.
The company noted in a release Monday that the Puerto Rico biologics plant expansion will enhance its “existing advanced manufacturing role” and support workforce development in the region, while also creating hundreds of construction jobs during construction.
In addition to spending about $1 billion on the Juncos site, Amgen has since last year drafted designs for a $900 million expansion of its biomanufacturing plant in central Ohio, and is building a $600 million research and development center at its headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to house researchers and accelerate next-generation drug discovery.
The company said the new Thousand Oaks location will create hundreds of new jobs in the United States.
As Amgen adjusts its U.S. investment plans, some of its peers are nearing the end of the planning stages for U.S. expansion projects.
Last week, Novartis laid out the blueprint for a new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility in Morrisville, North Carolina.
Novartis said the Morrisville project will be the seventh and final facility the company will build as part of its $23 billion U.S. investment plan, along with other facilities underway in the Tar Heel State and new or growing radioligand cancer treatment facilities in Texas, Florida, California, Indiana and New Jersey.
