AbbVie plans to spend $195 million to build a new facility to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients in its hometown of North Chicago, Illinois.
Construction will begin in the fall, and the site should be fully operational in 2027, AbbVie said Tuesday. The facility will help the company produce both current and future medicines in neuroscience, immunology and oncology.
The new investment is part of a larger commitment of more than $10 billion in capital investments in the U.S. over the next decade. AbbVie CEO Rob Michael announced the plan in April, tying it to expected volume growth and expansion into areas including obesity drugs.
Drugmakers have been rushing to tout their U.S. manufacturing investments amid threats of tariffs on pharmaceutical imports from President Trump. Most recently, Trump said those tariffs might rise as high as 250%, starting small and then ratcheting up over a period of a year and a half.
AbbVie’s overall commitment is relatively small compared to some other major pharmaceutical companies; Johnson & Johnson promised $55 billion over four years, and AstraZeneca pledged to spend $50 billion on manufacturing and research in the U.S. by 2030. Eli Lilly in February increased its investment pledge to $50 billion from $23 billion, including commitments made in the years since 2020.
Still, many of the industry’s announcements have lacked details on where all the money will go. AbbVie said the new facility in North Chicago will add to a manufacturing footprint that currently supports more than 6,000 American jobs across 11 sites. The company employs more than 11,000 people in Illinois.
