The state on Monday approved nearly $6.4 million in economic incentives for a German pharmaceutical supply maker to create 401 jobs at a future syringe manufacturing facility in the Eastern North Carolina city of Wilson.
Under the terms of the job development investment grant (JDIG) it received, SCHOTT Pharma promises to add these jobs and invest $371 million in the site by 2030. In addition to state benefits, the city of Wilson and Wilson County combined to allocate economic incentives worth $16.1 million.
The plant will make “glass and polymer prefillable syringes” for pharmaceutical and biotech customers, the N.C. Department of Commerce wrote in its JDIG agreement. SCHOTT says the site will bolster its U.S. syringe supply chain to help deliver “in-demand” mRNA and GLP-1, the latter of which is a medication category that includes the popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
The Danish health care company Novo Nordisk currently produces both of these GLP-1s in Johnston County.
SCHOTT Pharma is a subsidiary of SCHOTT Group, a global producer of glass and other advanced materials. In a statement Monday, SCHOTT North America President Christopher Cassidy said his company selected Wilson for its “proximity to the Research Triangle area, which hosts numerous universities, pharma companies, and research institutions.”
The average salary at the site will be $57,868 while the average wage in Wilson County is currently $52,619, according to the state commerce department.
Under North Carolina incentive deals, recipient companies only receive payroll tax benefits after they meet certain hiring and investment thresholds. If the syringe plant reaches its initial goals, SCHOTT will receive nearly $5 million in direct tax benefits through the state’s JDIG and another $7 million in direct benefits from the county and city.
The city of Wilson and Wilson County will also invest $5.3 million to improve local infrastructure for the site. In addition to the JDIG, North Carolina’s incentive package reserves $641,600 for the North Carolina Community College System to train workers.
Wilson is a city of 47,000 about 50 miles east of Raleigh. SCHOTT selected it over another finalist site near Greenville, South Carolina, the JDIG stated. Helping land the plant was the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, which on Monday celebrated North Carolina’s deepening ties with businesses from Germany.
According to EDPNC, the state has announced 109 projects from German companies over the past decade, leading to 7,000 new jobs.
