Pharmaceutical company Novartis broke ground on its new radioligand therapy manufacturing plant May 7 in Denton.
What’s happening?
Jeffrey Kessler, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for industry and security; Swiss Ambassador to the U.S. Ralf Heckner; Texas state Sen. Brent Hagenbuch; Texas state Rep. Andy Hopper; former Dallas Cowboys player Emmitt Smith; and Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth joined Novartis leaders and Texas Oncology representatives to celebrate the groundbreaking.
The Novartis plant is the first radioligand therapy, or RLT, manufacturing facility in Texas, according to previous reporting. The pharmaceutical organization will produce drugs for radioligand therapy, a form of targeted radiation used to treat advanced forms of cancer.
Victor Bultó, the Novartis U.S. president, said the partnerships with the city and nearby universities like the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University made the Denton launch possible.
“This will serve patients across the United States,” Bultó said. “This site represents a long-term commitment to operational excellence ... and to the people who will depend on the treatment made here to improve and extend their lives.”
The Denton plant is expected to become operational in 2028 and will support jobs in bioengineering, advanced manufacturing, quality control and operations, according to Novartis.
Zooming out
The Swiss-based pharmaceutical company will bring more than 1,000 direct jobs to the United States with seven new facilities and will create 4,000 indirect jobs across the country with the supply chain.
“We’re especially proud Novartis selected Denton; it was a competitive process,” Hudspeth said. “Novartis is a multimillion dollar investment coming to Denton and moves the needle on our long-term economic vision.”
The effort is part of a $23 billion investment over five years Novartis has made across the United States in manufacturing and research, Heckner said. The Denton facility will help the company’s goal of producing all of its key medicines, from start to finish, on U.S. soil to reinforce timely delivery for patients.
Once the treatment is created, Novartis only has five days to ship it to a patient before it expires, Bultó said. The treatment is designed to target cancerous tumors without damaging the healthy tissue around the cancer.
More than 37,000 patients have been treated with Novartis RLTs since it was first approved, and there are two Food and Drug Administration-approved RLTs on the market already, specifically to target tumors in the pancreas and digestive tract and another to target prostate cancer, according to Novartis officials.
Smith, an NFL Hall of Fame running back who won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, was at the groundbreaking to detail his support of Novartis’ RLT treatment.
“This community right here deserves the best. Novartis is creating that opportunity for that to happen,” Smith said. “My father had prostate cancer. ... That was a new learning experience for myself. Talking about his care is something that we had to go through.”
The backstory
The $280 million Denton plant will be the fifth manufacturing site of its kind in the United States and is the only Novartis location in Texas, Bultó said.
Denton City Council approved an economic development agreement with the company at a Dec. 16 meeting, according to previous reporting.
The company officially purchased an existing three-building, special-use facility totaling 46,000 square feet on 20 acres at 2101 Shady Oaks Drive, according to a Feb. 25 city of Denton news release.
