Eli Lilly is setting up a huge manufacturing facility in Houston, but it’s not the only big U.S. drug company eyeing the populous Texas town.
Bristol-Myers Squibb is considering building a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Houston that would employ nearly 500 people, according to a filing (PDF) with the state.
If the project goes ahead, Bristol will initially build a 600,000-square-foot factory with the possibility of expansion in the future. The company will be located in the Generation Park Management District on the city’s northeast side and will produce pharmaceuticals for domestic and international markets, according to the filing.
A Bristol spokesperson said in an email that the site is just one of many the drug company is considering.
“We are conducting an extensive and competitive evaluation of multiple markets in the Middle East U.S., using GMP manufacturing capabilities and other criteria, as potential locations for domestic manufacturing investments,” the spokesperson said. “We are unable to confirm the site, schedule, or other details at this time. We look forward to sharing more information when possible, but we have no additional comment on the evaluation process at this time.”
BMS is considering Texas because the state is “emerging as a dynamic, fast-growing life sciences destination,” according to the filing. In Houston in particular, the region’s extensive expertise in the petrochemical industry is “directly linked to the production of small molecule pharmaceuticals,” the document says.
BMS applied under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation (JETI) program, which provides incentives for large-scale development projects in the state. This is the same program that pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly had in place before it announced a massive $6.5 billion investment in the field last fall.
Lilly’s planned Houston plant, one of four being built under the Indianapolis drugmaker’s recent U.S. manufacturing push, will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients for oral drugs and ultimately employ hundreds of people once it comes online.
As for BMS, the Texas filing comes a year after the company unveiled its own multibillion-dollar U.S. expansion. Last May, drug companies announced plans to spend $40 billion on U.S. research, development, technology and manufacturing over the next five years.
Across the industry, Trump administration policies are prompting big drug companies to take out their checkbooks for new capital projects. U.S. investment commitments by biopharmaceutical companies totaled more than $370 billion last year, according to a December report from DPR Construction, a California-based contractor and construction management company.
