Clinical research company plans 749-job expansion in Durham after landing incentives
A clinical research company is planning a two-part expansion in Durham County after landing an incentive package potentially worth nearly $10 million from the state.
Q2 Solutions, a joint venture between IQVIA — formerly known as Quintiles — and Quest Diagnostics, will create 749 jobs in Durham County over the next eight years, according to the N.C. Commerce Department.
Q2, referred to as Q-squared, will invest $73 million in the county as it plans to expand its laboratory space there. The company, whose global headquarters is currently in Morrisville, runs clinical trials for biotechnology companies, specifically focusing on genomic testing, a rapidly growing part of the field.
With its planned investment, the company will be shifting its headquarters and lab operations to a new facility in RTP, company CEO Brian O’Dwyer said in an interview.
While the company works closely with its parent companies, IQVIA and Quest, O’Dwyer said Q2 works with a variety of other clinical research firms to run trials for some of the top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies attempting to bring new drugs to the market. He hopes the company will move into its new facility sometime in 2021.
To facilitate the move, the state will give Q2 two separate incentive packages, the first covering the initial phase of expansion, which will add 293 new jobs. The second grant will cover an expansion that won’t begin until 2023 and will add 456 jobs by 2027.
The jobs will have a minimum average salary in the first phase of the expansion of $89,379, which is higher than Durham County’s average wage of $68,731. The second phase will have a minimum average salary of $82,603.
The company will have to be “100% compliant” with the first incentive agreement before the second one begins, said Beth Gargan, deputy secretary for communications at the state’s Commerce Department. Both incentive agreements will be paid out over 12-year periods. The first package could be worth $4.3 million and the second could net the company $5.3 million from the state.
The incentives were approved Wednesday morning in Raleigh by the state’s Economic Investment Committee.
Durham County will also chip in a combined $950,000 across the two incentive packages.
Q2, which has lab space across the world, was considering expanding in Marietta, Georgia, instead of Durham, according to documents from the Commerce Department.
Gov. Roy Cooper lauded the expansion as sign of how strong the Research Triangle’s biotechnology industry is.
“Because of our strong biotechnology talent, North Carolina has become a hub for contract research organizations of all sizes,” Cooper said in a statement. “In the fight against disease, innovative research companies like Q2 Solutions get the data to make life-changing drugs available to people who need it faster and safer, and we are proud of our state’s role to help them do that work.”
O’Dwyer said talent was one of the biggest drivers of Q2’s decision to expand in Durham.
“I think that is one of the determining factors in creating this innovation lab here within North Carolina,” he said. “We have a strong feed of talent coming out [of the local colleges], and we are collaborating with a number of the universities in the area.”
O’Dwyer referenced the impact that IQVIA had in the area, helping to develop a concentration of clinical research talent in the Triangle over the course of several decades. IQVIA was originally spun out of UNC-Chapel Hill by Dennis Gillings as Quintiles.
Now there are several clinical research companies based in the Triangle, including Rho and Parexel, which expanded in Durham earlier this year after also getting incentives from the state.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Clinical research company plans 749-job expansion in Durham after landing incentives."
