Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA has started work on a $1 billion investment that includes an expansion of its West Side facilities.
The company, a division of London-based Hikma, officially broke ground over the weekend on the expansion of its facility at 1809 N. Wilson Rd. The 130,000-square-foot addition will expand the facility’s research and development and manufacturing capabilities.
The West Side plant is the largest U.S. manufacturing center for Hikma, which makes generic drugs. The Columbus facility, which employs more than 1,300 workers, produces a range of drugs, including generic versions of the asthma drug Advair and the allergy inhaler Flonase.
“In Columbus, the investment will be used to expand our production of oral medicines and the inhalers,” said spokesman Steven Weiss. “It will also be used to expand and strengthen our research and development capabilities and laboratories.”
The expansion is the latest of a string of biotech and medical expansions in central Ohio.
The $1 billion in U.S. investment will be spent by 2030 on Hikma’s facilities in Columbus and Bedford, Ohio, and in Cherry Hill and Dayton, New Jersey.
“We are proud to continue our ongoing investments in US manufacturing and R&D to better serve the needs of American patients,” Hafrun Fridriksdottir, president of Hikma Rx, said in a news release.
The investment follows more than $4 billion Hikma has spent over the past 15 years to expand its U.S. operations, the company said. With the expansions, Hikma can produce more than 12 billion finished doses of medicines.
Hikma officials were joined at the weekend groundbreaking by politicians, including U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Georgia, a pharmacist who chairs the American-Made Medicines Caucus, and Rep. Mike Carey, a Republican who represents Ohio’s 15th House District, which includes parts of Columbus.
“Hikma continues to invest in American workers and I am thrilled that they have chosen to continue that commitment here in Columbus,” Carey said in a news release.
Real estate and Development Reporter Jim Weiker can be reached at jweiker@dispatch.com and at 614-284-3697. Follow him @JimWeiker
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Drug maker Hikma announces $1 billion expansion, including its West Side Columbus plant
Reporting by Jim Weiker, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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