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Global pharmaceutical companies have committed nearly half a trillion dollars to build and expand operations in the United States.
Over the past year and a half, firms including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Roche, AbbVie, and more than a dozen others have announced new plants, expanded research centers, and multi-year manufacturing commitments across the country. Together, these pledges now add up to roughly $500 billion.
The Rush to Build in America
Much of this spending traces back to a standoff between the White House and the drug industry over prices and where medicines get made.
Starting in late 2025, the administration began pressing individual drugmakers to sign side deals: commit to new US manufacturing and agree to “Most-Favored-Nation” pricing, which ties US drug costs closer to what other wealthy countries pay, in exchange for relief from tariffs.
Pfizer struck the first such agreement on September 30, 2025, pairing a $70 billion US investment pledge with a three-year tariff exemption and lower Medicaid prices. AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, and Merck later reached similar arrangements, and the administration’s TrumpRx.gov platform began offering direct-to-consumer discounts on select drugs in early 2026.
The tariff threat became formal policy on April 2, 2026, when President Trump signed a proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act imposing a 100% tariff on patented drugs and their active ingredients. The actual rate a company pays depends on where it stands:
- 100% for companies without a qualifying manufacturing or pricing agreement
- 20% for companies with an approved US onshoring plan but no pricing deal
- 0% for companies with both an onshoring plan and a pricing agreement in place
Generic drugs, biosimilars, and several specialty categories, including orphan drugs, cell and gene therapies, and plasma-derived treatments, are exempt altogether. The tariff took effect for large drugmakers on July 31, 2026, and will apply to smaller manufacturers starting September 29, 2026. In practical terms, that means the investment pledges below are not just goodwill gestures. For most of these companies, they are the price of avoiding a tariff that is now active.
Who Is Spending What
Here is a breakdown of the major pledges announced so far, ranked from largest to smallest.
1. AbbVie: $100 billion
AbbVie has committed $100 billion over the next decade to US research and manufacturing, the largest single pledge in the industry so far. The commitment is tied to a three-year drug-pricing agreement with the Trump administration and builds on the company’s 11 existing US manufacturing sites. In February, AbbVie detailed plans for two new facilities at its North Chicago, Illinois, campus to support its neuroscience and obesity drug production.
2. Pfizer and Merck: about $70 billion each
Pfizer’s $70 billion commitment, made as part of its September 2025 pricing deal, covers new research and domestic manufacturing capacity. Merck has pledged a similar amount and has already broken ground on a $3 billion plant in Virginia, opened a $1 billion facility in North Carolina, and started work on a $1 billion Delaware site to expand production of its cancer drug Keytruda. Merck’s animal health division is separately investing $895 million to expand a Kansas site, part of a $9 billion commitment for that unit through 2028.
3. AstraZeneca and Roche: $50 billion each
AstraZeneca plans to spend $50 billion on US manufacturing and research by 2030, anchored by a new drug substance facility in Virginia that the company calls its largest single-site investment anywhere in the world. Roche has pledged the same amount over five years, including a doubled investment, now near $2 billion, in a manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, plus another $550 million to expand its Indianapolis diagnostics hub.
4. Johnson & Johnson: $55 billion
J&J plans to raise its US investment by 25 percent to $55 billion over four years, funding four new plants, including sites in Wilson, North Carolina, and at a Fujifilm Biotechnologies facility in Holly Springs. The company is also spending about $1 billion in Jacksonville, Florida, to expand eye-care manufacturing, with that plant expected to be fully operational in 2028.
5. Eli Lilly: more than $50 billion since 2020
Lilly’s cumulative US manufacturing and research commitments since 2020 now top $50 billion, according to the company. Of the six domestic plants President Trump said in January the company plans to build, three have specific locations and price tags so far: about $6 billion in Huntsville, Alabama, $5 billion in Virginia, and $6.5 billion in Houston, Texas. In January, Lilly also unveiled a fourth site, a $3.5 billion facility in Pennsylvania.
6. Bristol Myers Squibb: $40 billion
Bristol Myers Squibb is putting about $2.3 billion into a new drug manufacturing plant in Houston, part of a broader $40 billion US investment commitment. The Houston project alone is expected to create nearly 500 skilled jobs and about 2,000 construction jobs.
7. Gilead Sciences: $32 billion
Gilead has raised its total pledged US investment to $32 billion after adding $11 billion in new spending earlier this year. Work is already underway on a manufacturing and development hub at its Foster City, California, headquarters, with two additional sites in development.
8. GSK: $30 billion
The London-based drugmaker plans to invest $30 billion over five years in US research, development, and supply chain infrastructure.
9. Novartis: $23 billion
Novartis is spending $23 billion to build or expand 10 US facilities over five years, including new radioligand-therapy manufacturing sites in Texas, Florida, and California, plus an expansion of its San Diego research campus expected to add more than 1,000 jobs.
10. Sanofi: at least $20 billion
Sanofi plans to invest at least $20 billion through 2030, expanding its own US sites while also partnering with domestic contract manufacturers.
11. Amgen: several billion dollars across multiple sites
Amgen has not announced a single US total. Still, it has layered on a string of individual commitments: $900 million to expand its Ohio facility, $1 billion for a second site in Holly Springs, North Carolina, more than $600 million for a new research center at its Thousand Oaks, California headquarters, and a combined $950 million to expand biologics manufacturing in Juncos, Puerto Rico. Altogether, the announcements add up to several billion dollars spread across three states and one US territory.
12. Biogen: $2 billion
Biogen is adding $2 billion to its existing North Carolina manufacturing network, where it already operates seven factories, to expand gene-therapy production and automation.
13. Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk has not announced a new figure recently but points to its existing US footprint, including an earlier $4.1 billion expansion of its Clayton, North Carolina, facility, as evidence it is well positioned for tariff pressure. The Danish company describes itself as “very U.S.-centric and U.S.-focused.”
14. CSL: $1.5 billion
Australia’s CSL is investing $1.5 billion over five years to expand plasma-derived therapy manufacturing, including a facility in Kankakee, Illinois, expected to become operational in 2031.
15. Cipla
The Indian drugmaker has not disclosed a specific dollar figure but is expanding capacity for complex respiratory products at its facilities in Fall River, Massachusetts, and Central Islip, New York.
A Long Runway Before Any of This Opens
Most of these projects are years from full operation. Facilities tied to these announcements are scheduled to become operational anywhere from 2027 through 2032, and industry groups have cautioned that new plants will do little to ease near-term drug shortages even as tariff deadlines arrive this year. For now, the pledges give companies a way to manage tariff exposure and pricing pressure while construction plays out over the rest of the decade.
