As Eli Lilly moves to set up a mammoth manufacturing facility in Houston, it’s not the only U.S. pharma juggernaut with an eye on the populous Texas town.
Bristol Myers Squibb is weighing building a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Houston that would employ nearly 500 people, according to an application document (PDF) filed with the state.
If the project proceeds, Bristol would build a plant covering 600,000 square feet at the start, with potential expansions available down the line. It’d be located in the Generation Park Management District on the northeast side of the city and produce medicines for both domestic and foreign markets, according to the filing.
The site is just one of many being considered by the drugmaker, a Bristol spokesperson said in an email.
“We are conducting an extensive, competitive evaluation of multiple markets in the Central and Eastern U.S. with GMP manufacturing capabilities and other criteria as potential locations for our domestic manufacturing investment,” the spokesperson said. “We cannot confirm sites, timelines, or other details at this time. We look forward to sharing more information when we are able and have no additional comment on the evaluation process at this time.”
BMS is considering Texas because the state’s “emergence as a dynamic and fast-growing life sciences destination,” according to the filing. In Houston specifically, the region’s abundance of expertise in the petrochemical industry “translates directly to small molecule pharmaceutical manufacturing,” the document says.
BMS made the application under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation (JETI) program, which provides incentives for large development projects in the state. It’s the same program Eli Lilly pursued before the pharma giant unveiled a massive $6.5 billion investment in the area last fall.
Lilly’s planned Houston plant—one of four being constructed under the Indianapolis drugmaker’s recent U.S. production push—is slated to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients for oral drugs, eventually employing hundreds once it’s online.
As for BMS, the Texas filing comes a year after the company unveiled its own multibillion-dollar U.S. expansion spree. Last May, the drugmaker revealed a plan to spend $40 billion across U.S. R&D, technology and manufacturing over the next five years.
Around the industry, Trump administration policies have prompted large drugmakers to pull out their checkbooks for new capital projects. All told, U.S. investment pledges by biopharma companies surpassed $370 billion last year, according to a December report by California-based contractor and construction manager DPR Construction.