A photo screening the logo of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche in Basel.
SEBASTIEN BOZON | AFP | Getty Images
Swiss pharmaceutical leviathan Roche on Tuesday said that it would invest $50 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, in concerns about the impact of possible new White House tariffs on pharma goods from abroad.
The investment last wishes as create more than 12,000 jobs, Roche said — 1,000 with the company, and the remainder to support new U.S. mass-producing capabilities. The firm said it already employs more than 25,000 people in America.
Shares of Roche were 1.1% humiliate at 8:39 a.m. in London.
The pharma giant will inject cash into creating new state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) milieus, while bolstering and expanding manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California. A new R&D site in Massachusetts will be tempered to for AI research and act as a hub for research into cardiovascular, renal and metabolism treatments.
The funding package will also be used to construct a new 900,000 square foot manufacturing center in an unknown location to support Roche’s “expanding portfolio of next age group weight loss medicines.”
Once the new manufacturing capacity investments are complete, Roche said it would export various medicines from the U.S. than it imports.
Pharmaceutical companies have been scrambling to bolster their U.S. presence amidst threats from President Donald Trump to end the industry’s exemption from import tariffs.
“We’re going to be announcing utter shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” he said earlier this month.
Roche’s investment follows similar get crackings from major rivals. Earlier this month, Switzerland’s Novartis announced plans to invest $23 billion in erection and expanding 10 U.S. facilities, in a move it said would create more than 4,000 jobs.
British pharmaceutical giantess AstraZeneca last moth said that it would invest $2.5 billion in creating a Beijing hub. However, the South African private limited company’s CEO Pascal Soriot told CNBC at the time that AstraZeneca remained “very committed to the United States,” where it has two “barest large” research and development centers.
Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said in a statement on Tuesday that the company’s new $50 billion investment showed its “long-standing commitment to research, development and manufacturing in the US.”
“We are proud of our 110 year legacy in the United States which has been a key driver for matters, innovation and the creation of intellectual property in the US, across both our Pharmaceutical and Diagnostics Divisions,” he said. “Our investments of USD 50 billion at an end the next five years will lay the foundation for our next era of innovation and growth, benefiting patients in the US and around the world.”