“This decision reflects our confidence in UCB’s long-term growth and our deep-rooted commitment to the United States,” Jean Christophe Tellier, UCB’s CEO, said in a statement.
UCB was drawn by the site’s scalability within a “master-planned innovation district,” it said. The company was also attracted to being a participant in a growing life sciences community.
Like North Carolina’s RTP park, which is located centrally to three of the state’s key universities, the Rowen development is situated near Emory University, Georgia Tech University and the University of Georgia.
“The real factors are about talent, location, quality of life, the innovation ecosystem,” Taco van Tiel, UCB’s U.S. chief, said in an interview with Fierce. “We’re also very excited to be part of this emerging, further growing, life sciences sector in Georgia. To be one of the first ones in and really build it out is a great opportunity.”
Van Tiel added that the company cast a wide net, considering up to 15 sites in the U.S. before settling on Atlanta. UCB has largely been using contract manufacturers to produce its drugs in the U.S. In addition to its U.S. headquarters, UCB has a research facility in the Boston area and conducts clinical R&D at a site in the RTP area.
“To add manufacturing really builds out this full value chain,” van Tiel added. “For your major growth drivers, you want to own that manufacturing piece as much as possible yourself. Over time you start to reach economies of scale.”
At the facility, UCB will employ AI, robotics and automation, producing biologics around the clock. The company added that the site will become the hub for its U.S. manufacturing operations and underscores its “long-term commitment to the U.S.”
With the move, UCB joins several other biopharma companies that have committed to building large plants in the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office and revealed his push to bring more manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on foreign-made pharmaceuticals has spurred a wave of biopharma investment from companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Eli Lilly and Novartis.
