Research Triangle, Indianapolis or Philadelphia? Best US Base for UK Pharma

Discovery science and manufacturing do not want the same city, and UK pharma companies often plan as though they do.

Our guide to where life science companies should expand in the US covers the research side across eleven cities. This piece is about the other half: where to put manufacturing, supply chain, quality and commercial teams.

That decision has changed recently, because the money has moved.

The onshoring wave, and what it means for a UK company

Pharmaceutical companies have pledged more than $370 billion in US manufacturing investment over five years, according to PharmaVoice.

That capital is concentrating rather than spreading. North Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio are absorbing most of it, and each region is specialising.

For a UK company, the opportunity is less about following the money and more about following the talent it creates. When Novartis or Lilly builds a plant, it trains a workforce that a smaller company can later hire from.

The risk is the same one in reverse. Arriving in a region where three multinationals are hiring simultaneously means competing for quality and validation staff against employers with far deeper pockets.

Four questions to answer before you pick a city

Are you manufacturing or commercialising? A commercial team follows prescribers and payers. A manufacturing team follows regulatory-experienced operators and validation engineers.

What modality are you working in? Small molecule, biologics and cell and gene therapy cluster in different places, and the skills do not transfer easily.

Will you build or use a contract manufacturer? Most UK companies start with a CDMO, which changes the location question entirely.

How many medical affairs people will you hire? This one has a legal answer that varies by state, and it catches people out.

Research Triangle: the biologics manufacturing centre

North Carolina has become the default answer for biologics manufacturing in the US, and 2025 accelerated it.

The state booked $3.79 billion in life sciences investment across 18 companies in 2025, creating 1,380 jobs in 10 communities, according to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Biogen accounted for $2 billion of it, Novartis $771 million and Genentech $700 million, later expanded to $2 billion in January 2026.

The larger commitments sit alongside that. Johnson and Johnson is putting $2 billion into a Wilson facility and a further $2 billion into manufacturing space at Fujifilm Biotechnologies in Holly Springs. Novartis is building a 700,000 square foot hub across Morrisville and Durham, targeted to open in 2028 with 700 jobs by 2030.

Who the Triangle suits

The Triangle suits companies needing biologics manufacturing capability, whether their own or through a CDMO partner.

It also suits companies wanting proximity to a trained workforce without Boston salaries. The region has spent two decades building biomanufacturing training programmes, and the result is a deep pool of technicians and quality staff.

The caution is competition. With this much simultaneous construction, hiring experienced validation and quality assurance people is harder than the headline numbers suggest.

Employment rules in North Carolina

North Carolina applies the federal minimum wage of $7.25, per the US Department of Labor. There is no state pay transparency law, so job adverts carry no salary disclosure duty.

Restrictive covenants are governed by state case law rather than a statutory earnings threshold. Employment is at-will, as covered in our at-will employment guide.

Indianapolis: small molecule at enormous scale

Indiana is a one-company story, and that company is building something without precedent.

Eli Lilly announced an additional $4.5 billion across two facilities in Lebanon, Indiana, according to Manufacturing Dive. That takes its Indiana capital commitments beyond $21 billion over six years.

The active pharmaceutical ingredient facility will produce Zepbound, Mounjaro and newer GLP-1 products. Chief executive David Ricks said that on completion it will be the largest API production site in US history.

A second facility at the same site supports clinical and commercial production of genetic medicines.

Who Indianapolis suits

Indianapolis suits small molecule and API work, and it suits companies that want to sit inside a supply chain rather than beside a research cluster.

The workforce effect is the real draw for a smaller company. A site of that scale trains process chemists, engineers and quality staff in numbers the region has never had. Not all of them stay with one employer.

The limitation is breadth. Indiana’s life sciences economy is concentrated, and if your modality sits outside small molecule and API you may find the specific skills thin.

Employment rules in Indiana

Indiana applies the federal minimum wage of $7.25. There is no state pay transparency law and no statutory earnings threshold for non-competes.

Of the three states here, Indiana and North Carolina present the lightest administrative load.

Philadelphia: cell and gene therapy, and a non-compete trap

Philadelphia built something the other two regions do not have, which is a real cell and gene therapy cluster.

The region’s advantage came from academic medicine rather than corporate relocation, and the commercial base grew around it. GSK is investing $1.2 billion, including a new biologics flex factory at Upper Merion. Johnson and Johnson announced a next-generation cell therapy manufacturing site in January 2026.

For a UK company working in advanced therapies, Philadelphia is the only one of these three regions with the specific manufacturing and regulatory experience that modality needs.

The rule that catches medical affairs hiring

Pennsylvania restricted non-compete agreements for healthcare practitioners in 2024, which is directly relevant to pharma hiring.

If your US team will include medical science liaisons, clinical staff or other licensed practitioners, different rules apply. The restrictions available to you differ from those for a commercial hire. Our state-by-state non-compete guide sets out how Pennsylvania treats these agreements.

This is worth raising with counsel before you draft offer letters, not after a departure.

Employment rules in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania applies the federal minimum wage of $7.25. There is no state pay transparency law requiring salary ranges in job adverts.

Employment is at-will, and outside the healthcare practitioner restriction, restrictive covenants are governed by state case law.

Research Triangle, Indianapolis and Philadelphia at a glance

Employment law is not the differentiator here, which is unusual

In most of this series, state employment rules do real work in the decision. Pharma is the exception.

All three states apply the federal minimum wage, none imposes pay transparency duties on job adverts, and none sets a statutory earnings threshold for non-competes. The cost and compliance base is broadly the same.

That means the decision rests almost entirely on modality, supply chain and workforce, which is how it should be. The one legal factor worth weighing is Pennsylvania’s healthcare practitioner restriction, and only if you are hiring licensed staff.

It also means you can test more than one region cheaply, because you are not choosing between materially different compliance regimes.

Start with commercial, not with capital

Manufacturing decisions are slow and expensive, and most UK pharma companies do not need to make them first.

A commercial and medical affairs presence tells you whether US payers and prescribers respond to your product. That answer should drive the manufacturing decision rather than the other way round.

An Employer of Record lets you place those people in any state without incorporating. Our guide to how an Employer of Record works explains the mechanics, and using an EOR for US market testing covers the sequence.

When you commit to a facility you will need your own entity, and the EOR versus own entity decision covers when that point arrives.

For adjacent reading, our guide on how UK and European biotech founders commercialise in America covers the funding side. The true cost of US expansion sets out what sits on top of salary. If your US plan is primarily a plant, our guide to choosing a US base for UK advanced manufacturing covers site-led decisions.

Talk to us before you commit to a city

We help UK and European pharmaceutical companies hire US staff without setting up an entity, and we advise on which state suits the roles being recruited.

Get in touch with our team to talk through your options.