By Ben Tobin – Greater Triangle Growth Reporter, Triangle Business Journal

When Japanese life sciences company Kyowa Kirin announced it’d selected Sanford for a new pharmaceutical manufacturing complex, the company said it would invest roughly $200 million in the project.

But following a vote from the company’s board, that investment total could more than double.

In June, the company announced that its board of directors approved $530 million to be spent on a new 171,700-square-foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. The original full-time jobs pledge and minimum average salary for those jobs — 102 and $91,496 — remain unchanged, Paul Testa, the company’s executive vice president for supply chain and manufacturing in North America, told Triangle Business Journal.

Testa said that the $200 million number reflects the cost of the physical plant and the equipment for it, whereas the additional funding goes to “services” like IT systems and qualification, validation and commissioning to receive approval to use the building. He said the company is “authorized to go forward up to $530 million as a ceiling” but declined to name the specific estimate for the investment.

“We take commitments like this one very seriously,” Testa said. “The last thing we want to be doing is being out in the public eye as a new company in the region locally is make a commitment that we then fall short and then have to live with that on an ongoing basis. So we thought it was better to enter with a lower number, and as we grow into the project, we can communicate that.”

Kyowa Kirin has been moving quickly since its February announcement. On June 18, the company completed its purchase of roughly 75 acres from Helix Ventures, which owns Helix Innovation Park at the Brickyard, a new industrial park covers 895 acres in the northern part of Lee County. Testa said that following this first buildout, Kyowa Kirin will still have north of 40 acres to work with.

In May, the company submitted designs for its facility that will serve as the base of the company’s Sanford operations. As of the beginning of June, the company had hired 15 people for the Sanford plant. The facility will be focused on the manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies to treat several rare diseases.

Steve Schaefer, Kyowa Kirin’s North America president, said he is excited about the momentum of Kyowa Kirin,

“Here in North America, we’re the fastest-growing region in the world for Kyowa Kirin corporate,” Schaefer said. “We are basically on par right now with Japan as far as total sales go, which is really exciting. And we’ve got some really novel and life-changing medications that we’re extremely proud of that really impact and make improvements in peoples’ lives.”

Kyowa Kirin North America saw a revenue in 2023 of more than $654 million, according to the company’s annual report published in May.

Ben Tobin covers real estate and economic development in the Greater Triangle, focusing on the counties outside Wake and Durham. Have a tip? Reach him at btobin@bizjournals.com or (919) 327-1012.

The preceding article originally appeared on July 1, 2024 at the Triangle Business Journal’s website and is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Graphic above: Kyowa Kirin has submitted designs for its new Sanford facility.