UPPER MERION, Pa. — GSK will invest more than $800 million to expand its Upper Merion site into a biopharmaceutical manufacturing and research hub, creating more than 300 jobs over the next five years, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's office announced Friday, according to Reuters.
Key facts
- GSK will invest more than $800 million in Montgomery County, creating more than 300 new jobs over five years and retaining approximately 4,500 existing full-time jobs in Pennsylvania, per the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
- Construction is planned to begin in 2027, and the hub will combine drug manufacturing, research and development, quality testing and digital operations, per Reuters.
- The project includes a new commercial-scale biologics manufacturing facility, a research pilot plant and a centralized quality-control laboratory, per Reuters.
- Pennsylvania officials said GSK will be eligible for state manufacturing tax incentives tied to the investment, per Reuters.
- GSK announced in September 2025 that it plans to invest $30 billion in U.S. research, development and supply chain infrastructure over five years, per GSK US.
What gets built
The Upper Merion expansion puts several functions on one site: commercial production, research and development, quality testing and advanced digital operations, according to the state announcement. Reuters reported the build includes a commercial-scale biologics facility, a research pilot plant and a centralized quality-control laboratory, and that the site will support both clinical and commercial production of biologic medicines. The work starts with demolition of existing buildings on the site. The pilot plant will be co-located with production to accelerate technology transfer and process development, and the plan adds a manufacturing science and technology hub, per the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
Biologics are the high-value end of the drug business, made from living systems rather than simple chemical synthesis. They require specialized plants, trained technicians and long regulatory runways.
GSK's U.S. headquarters is in Philadelphia, and the company already employs thousands in the state. Pennsylvania's life sciences sector counts approximately 3,900 companies, employs more than 110,000 Pennsylvanians and contributes $73 billion to the state's economy, according to the Shapiro administration. Researchers and companies in that sector have secured more than 20,000 new life sciences patents over the last five years, the sixth-highest total in the country, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
The second big Pennsylvania bet
This is GSK's second major expansion in Pennsylvania under Shapiro. The company previously invested $800 million at Marietta in Lancaster County, creating at least 200 new jobs and doubling that site's size and capacity in the largest Commonwealth-supported economic development project in Lancaster County's history, according to the state announcement, and the state says the two projects together total nearly $1.7 billion of planned investment in the commonwealth.
GSK's 2025 plan included a new biologics factory at Upper Merion. In September 2025, GSK said it would invest $30 billion across the United States in research and development and supply chain infrastructure over five years, including new manufacturing facilities, artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies, per GSK US. The company framed that plan as developing and making products in the United States for the United States.
Pennsylvania put manufacturing tax incentives on the table for this deal, state officials said, naming the Qualified Manufacturing Innovation and Reinvestment Deduction and the Manufacturing Tax Credit, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
Photo credit
- Hero: A lab worker at a hospital in Jos, Nigeria, by Mikeblyth, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
- Inline 1: A laboratory technician at work, by Bobjgalindo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Inline 2: A National Cancer Institute scientist prepares an experimental cancer vaccine, by John Keith / National Cancer Institute, public domain.