AbbVie Breaks Ground on US API Manufacturing Facility
New state-of-the-art active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility in North Chicago will manufacture immunology, oncology, and neuroscience medicines.
AbbVie has started construction of its new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing plant in North Chicago, Illinois. This is a significant milestone in AbbVie's ongoing efforts to expand its US manufacturing network, capabilities, and capacity.
"Today's groundbreaking is an important milestone in AbbVie's ongoing campaign to accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing capabilities in the US," said Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, AbbVie. "Over the next decade, AbbVie plans to invest more than $10 billion in capital to add multiple new US manufacturing plants and improve the lives of millions of patients in the US and worldwide who depend on our medicines."

API manufacturing is a complex and multistep process that involves producing the active components responsible for medications' therapeutic effects. When completed, AbbVie's new North Chicago API facility will expand its chemical synthesis capabilities and enable AbbVie to bring API production for select products from Europe and Asia to the US to support domestic production of current and next-generation neuroscience, immunology, and oncology medicines.
With a presence in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, AbbVie employs 28,000 employees in the US. The previously announced $195 million investment in North Chicago will create new jobs and expand AbbVie's existing US manufacturing footprint, which supports more than 6,000 jobs across 11 manufacturing sites. This investment also furthers AbbVie's long-term commitment to Illinois, where it is headquartered and includes more than 11,000 employees who work to develop and manufacture innovative medicines for patients worldwide.