The money will enable the addition of aseptic filling and oral solid dose capabilities to support Hikma’s products and contract manufacturing clients.
Hikma is investing $267 million across two sites in Ohio as part of a $1 billion U.S. expansion drive the generic drugmaker unveiled last year.
Pending approval and finalization of economic development incentives, Hikma will spend $216 million to expand oral solid dose and nasal inhalation manufacturing operations in Columbus, Ohio. Hikma, which expects the investment to create 50 jobs, broke ground on an expansion in Columbus last year.
The company has been investing in the site in preparation for a long-term manufacturing contract with a global pharma company. With pharma companies wanting to relocate drug production to the U.S. amid political pressure, Hikma has identified opportunities to use its plants to build a contract manufacturing business.
Hikma is spending the remaining $51 million of its recently disclosed investment to expand its injectable manufacturing capabilities at a plant in Bedford, Ohio. The investment, which Hikma said will create up to 300 jobs, covers aseptic vial filling and lyophilization, IV bag production, warehousing and distribution.
Improving the Bedford plant has been a multiyear project at Hikma. Bought in 2024 as part of Hikma’s $135 million acquisition of Xellia Pharmaceuticals assets, the facility needed refurbishing and upgrading to support commercial production. Hikma aims to start full commercial production in 2028, according to its annual report.
The company previously targeted a 2027 start date but suffered a delay last year. With machinery set to arrive later than expected, Hikma pushed back the start of commercial production at Bedford by about six months. The company plans to use the facility to make products including Tyzavan, an antibiotic that the FDA approved last year, and to support contract manufacturing.
Hikma originally bought the Bedford site in 2014 as part of its acquisition of Bedford Laboratories assets from Boehringer Ingelheim. After removing equipment from the site for use in Portuguese plants, Hikma sold some of the Bedford facilities to Xellia in 2015, only to repurchase them nine years later.
The investments cement Ohio’s position as a key location for Hikma, which employs more than 1,200 in Columbus. Across its sites in Ohio and New Jersey, the manufacturer employs 2,300 people. The U.S. plants can make more than 12 billion finished doses annually.
