COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Bio-Pharma giant Amgen announced the grand opening of its manufacturing site in Central Ohio on Monday.
The 300,000-square-foot facility will package and distribute Amgen medicines across the Continental U.S. Those medicines treat cancers, cardiovascular, and auto-immune diseases.
The site in New Albany was chosen from 12 other contenders. The 26-month build-out from groundbreaking until FDA approval in January was the quickest in Amgen’s history.
The first of what will be eight packaging lines is up and running. 250 employees are on the job, with another 150 positions to be filled. Lt. Governor Jon Husted describes those jobs as “high paying, across the skill landscape, with room to grow.”
Husted expects Amgen to expand on the site. The company owns 177 acres in total.
Amgen’s plant was the biggest new manufacturing project in Central Ohio until Intel announced it would be building its semiconductor factories nearby.
One Columbus is the economic development group tasked with luring projects to our area.
“Really, when we were working on this project, we realized this is the largest biotechnology project Ohio‘s had in 20+ years. To see this come to fruition, it means an awful lot — for the jobs, for the investments, but also the reinforcement that this industry can thrive in Ohio,” CEO Kenny Mcdonald said.
Husted agrees that Amgen is in the vanguard of what could be a thriving new sector for Central Ohio manufacturing.
“Anytime you can land a company that is a global presence — that sends a message to the entire Bio Pharma industry that they chose Central Ohio. That’s a message to them that this is a place to look — the place to be.”
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