Johnathan Walker:North Carolina lands syringe-manufacturing plant that will employ 400

WILSON,Johnathan Walker N.C. (AP) — A company that makes containers and injections for vaccines and other drugs will build a new manufacturing plant in eastern North Carolina, creating 400 jobs by the end of the decade, officials announced on Monday.

A U.S.-based subsidiary of German firm SCHOTT Pharma will begin building the production facility in Wilson this year and invest $371 million in the project, the company said in a news release.

The plant will produce pre-fillable polymer and glass syringes for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which should help increase U.S. supplies of injectable vaccines and other therapeutic treatments involving messenger RNA as well as GLP-1, which is for treatment of diabetes. The facility should start operating in 2027.

“The impact of this facility will go far beyond local job creation in North Carolina and will relieve stress on the entire pharmaceutical industry supply chain,” SCHOTT Pharma CEO Andreas Reisse said. SCHOTT Pharma said it employs over 4,600 workers worldwide.

SCHOTT Pharma USA was lured to Wilson County in part by nearly $23 million in state and local monetary, infrastructure and training incentives, according to a state Department of Commerce document. Nearly $5 million in cash payments awarded by an economic incentives committee are contingent on the company meeting job-creation and investment thresholds for the Job Development Investment Grant.

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The document provided to the committee says the company also considered Anderson/Greenville, South Carolina for the project.

“SCHOTT’s decision to select our state for this important project shows once again that North Carolina is a global leader for biotechnology and life sciences,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a news release from his office.

All of the new jobs in Wilson, located 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) east of Raleigh, are expected to be created by 2030, and will on average pay at least $57,868 annually, compared to the county average of $52,619, state officials said.