Jacobs Joins FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies $2B Holly Springs Site Unveiling Ceremony

The site poised to be the largest cell culture contract manufacturing facility in North America is one step closer to completion, and to developing life-changing medicines and therapies for patients that need them.

Jacobs and FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies recently held a ceremony marking a key milestone in the delivery of Fujifilm’s $2 billion large-scale contract manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina.

The site unveiling ceremony of the large-scale facility celebrated the project team and the program’s strong health and safety record. At the time of the event on November 7, the team had worked more than 3.5 million hours without a lost-time incident—notable for a project of such size and scale. The North Carolina Department of Labor also praised Jacobs’ proactive safety stance.

Jacobs CEO Bob Pragada gave remarks at the event to more than 2,500 employees, contractors, and skilled-trade workers, where he applauded the project’s health and safety record, the culture of trust between Jacobs and FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, and the impact the project will have on patients and communities once complete. 

“Today has left me inspired—and optimistic for the future,” Bob said. “Delivering the largest facility of its kind in North America on schedule, safely and sustainably is a remarkable undertaking,” he added. “Our partnership of trust has made this progress possible, and their work and the medicines that will be made here will have an incredible impact.”

Jacobs Project Director Steve Callaghan spoke about the project’s ultimate impact on patients: “You’re not just working on concrete and steel,” he shared on stage during the employee celebration event. “We’re working on a facility that will make life-changing medicines. And we’re proud to be part of that.”

As Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) partner on the program, Jacobs designed and is managing construction of two large-scale manufacturing suites fitted with 4 x 20,000 L bioreactors each. Implementing modular design practices from other facilities in FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’s global portfolio and intelligent AI progress tracking tools during the construction and planning phases has allowed the team to replicate building and equipment design across each manufacturing suite building on the Holly Springs site. This modularization not only speeds up construction but will enable global pharmaceutical customers to flexibly and seamlessly move across FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’s global network of biopharmaceutical facilities in Europe and North Carolina, ensuring market supply, patient proximity, and supply chain sustainability in the future. 

The site will provide drug substance manufacturing, automated fill-finish and assembly, packaging, and labeling services for global biopharmaceutical customers. With future growth in mind, the nearly 1,000,000 square-foot manufacturing site is being built with the flexibility to expand with additional 24 x 20,000 L bioreactors to accommodate new projects to meet the emerging needs of partners. This site will also create 725 manufacturing jobs in North Carolina by the end of 2028.

Once complete, the site will deliver life-changing medicines and therapies with the utmost quality, flexibility, speed and consistency to patients who need them.