Roche plans $50 bln investment in the U.S. over five years

Investing.com -- Roche (SIX:ROG) in a statement on Tuesday said it will invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years, in what the company describes as an expansion of its research, development and manufacturing operations. 

The investment, one of the largest foreign commitments to the U.S. healthcare sector, is expected to create over 12,000 jobs across the country.

The expansion will include new and upgraded facilities in several states, building on Roche’s existing presence of more than 25,000 employees across 24 sites in eight U.S. states. 

The company currently operates 15 research and development centres and 13 manufacturing sites in the country. 

The planned investments will generate 1,000 jobs directly at Roche, while more than 11,000 additional roles, many in construction, will support the expanded infrastructure.

Manufacturing capabilities will be extended in Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon and California, with further developments in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. 

In Pennsylvania, Roche will establish a state-of-the-art gene therapy manufacturing facility. Indiana will house a new site focused on continuous glucose monitoring. 

Massachusetts will become home to a new R&D centre for artificial intelligence, which will also serve as a hub for the company’s research into cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases.

Additionally, existing R&D centres in Arizona, Indiana and California will be upgraded and expanded.

As part of the investment, Roche will also construct a 900,000-square-foot manufacturing centre to support its portfolio of next-generation weight loss treatments. The company has not yet disclosed the location for this facility.

Roche stated that once the new sites are operational, it expects to export more medicines from the U.S. than it imports.

Its diagnostics division already exports more products from the U.S. than it brings in from other countries.