[ZURICH] Roche said on Tuesday (Apr 22) it would invest US$50 billion in the United States over the next five years, creating more than 12,000 new jobs, in the latest massive investment by companies reacting to President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
The announcement comes as drugmakers unveil investments to deal with tariffs from the Trump administration, which is seeking to boost domestic manufacturing.
Fellow Swiss drugmaker Novartis earlier this month said it would spend US$23 billion in the US, while Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson also announced sizeable investments recently.
The Roche and Novartis announcements gave a boost to Swiss President Karin Keller Sutter, who is set to meet senior US officials in Washington this week to try to reduce a threatened 31 per cent US tariff on Swiss exports.
“Our investments have also been aligned with the Swiss government and form part of the ongoing discussions between the US and Switzerland,” a Roche spokesperson said.
Chief executive Thomas Schinecker said the investment underscored Roche’s commitment to the US, where it employs 25,000 people across 24 sites.
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Of the 12,000 new positions, nearly 6,500 will be in construction and 1,000 at new and expanded facilities, the Swiss pharma giant said.
More exports from US
Once capacity comes online at the various facilities, Roche will export more medicines from the US than it imports, the Basel company said.
The US is a crucial market for Roche, which generated nearly 48 per cent of its sales there in 2024, thanks to blockbuster drugs like asthma and food allergy treatment Xolair and Ocrevus for multiple sclerosis.
Roche will expand its manufacturing and distribution centres in Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey and California, although some of the projects have been previously announced.
New schemes unveiled on Tuesday included a factory to make weight loss medicines, with the location yet to be announced, and a new plant for continuous glucose monitoring in Indiana.
“Our investments of US$50 billion over the next five years will lay the foundation for our next era of innovation and growth, benefiting patients in the US and around the world,” Schinecker said in a statement.
The executive did not mention the threat of looming tariffs, although Roche has analysed potential charges in recent weeks and was “well prepared to navigate them, apply mitigation measures, and adapt,” a spokesperson said.
Roche said there were no plans to cut back on its investments in the rest of world, saying it would provide more details of its investment strategy over the next few weeks.
Last week, the Trump administration launched a probe into pharmaceuticals imports, as part of a bid to impose tariffs on the sector.
The timing and extent of the levies remain uncertain but the impact could be big, with close to US$213 billion in pharmaceutical products imported to the US last year, nearly triple 2014’s US$73 billion, according to the United Nations trade database. REUTERS
