AbbVie Breaks Ground on Chicago API Manufacturing Plant

AbbVie has started construction of its new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing plant in North Chicago, Illinois.

“Today’s groundbreaking is an important milestone in AbbVie’s ongoing campaign to accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing capabilities in the U.S.,” said Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief operations officer, AbbVie. “Over the next decade, AbbVie plans to invest more than $10 billion in capital to add multiple new U.S. manufacturing plants and improve the lives of millions of patients in the U.S. and worldwide who depend on our medicines.”

AbbVie’s new North Chicago API facility, once completed, will significantly expand its chemical synthesis capabilities. This expansion will enable AbbVie to relocate API production for select products from Europe and Asia to the US. This move will support domestic production of current and next-generation neuroscience, immunology, and oncology medicines.

With a presence in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, AbbVie employs 28,000 employees in the U.S. The previously announced $195 million investment in North Chicago will create new jobs and expand AbbVie’s existing U.S. manufacturing footprint, which supports more than 6,000 American jobs across 11 manufacturing sites. This investment also furthers AbbVie’s long-term commitment to Illinois, where it is headquartered.