Novartis adds another Triangle facility site as part of NC spending surge
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- Novartis signed a lease for an additional 56,200 square feet at Pathway Triangle in Morrisville.
- Novartis pledged to invest more than $770 million across three Triangle sites through 2030.
- North Carolina's incentive requires a $111,161 minimum average salary and $61,500 repayment.
For the second time in six months, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has committed to opening a new facility in Morrisville.
The company has signed a lease to occupy an additional 56,200 square feet inside the Pathway Triangle campus near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Novartis last week announced it will use this space to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients to “enable end-to-end” U.S. manufacturing.
As one of the world’s most valuable drug companies, Novartis has aggressively moved to expand its American operations over the past year in an effort to minimize tariffs. North Carolina stands to benefit if its projects come true.
In November, Novartis signed a lease with Pathway developer King Street Properties to occupy more than 200,000 square feet at the Morrisville site. This was part of the company’s pledge to invest more than $770 million across a trio of Triangle sites through 2030. The following month, the company broke ground on a new “flagship manufacturing hub” on TW Alexander Drive in Durham.
Novartis overall has promised to spend $23 billion to increase drug production in the United States. Since last spring, it has announced seven new U.S. facilities, including two in the Triangle. If these projects are realized, the company will have five facilities across three North Carolina locations.
King Street completed the first phase of Pathway Triangle in late 2024. Around this time, another expansive biotech campus called Spark Life Science, or Spark LS, opened right across the street.
“Novartis moving forward with an expanded scope in Morrisville reflects strong alignment between the company’s long-term needs and what this community offers,” the town’s economic development director, Tiffany McNeill, wrote in a May 4 statement.
In December, Basil-based Novartis announced it had entered a confidential deal with the Trump administration to gain tariff exemptions for three years. The drugmaker included its North Carolina commitments in the news release on its White House agreement.
Novartis says its new Triangle projects will create more than 700 local jobs over the next five years. North Carolina is supporting a portion of this hiring, 380 positions, with an economic incentive to Novartis’ gene therapy division. To receive benefits, the company must pay these workers a minimum average salary of $111,161 and repay $61,500 from a previous Novartis incentive the state canceled in April 2025.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Novartis adds another Triangle facility site as part of NC spending surge."
