Currently under construction in Holly Springs, NC, Fujifilm Biotechnologies The new $ 3.2 million cell culture contracts manufacturing site is a unique installation that is designed to be the largest center in North America for the production of advanced biological, vaccine and therapies, according to the company.
At the same time, buildings, designs and processes of the installation have been designed to replicate quickly and easily anywhere in the world, positioning Fujifilm biotechnologies to help world customers bring their innovations to the market as quickly as possible.
The demand for these services was evidenced by the company’s decision last year to expand the Holly Springs plant before the end of August 2025 of the initial phase of $ 2 billion: a complex of one million square meters with two medicine -manufacturing buildings (DSM), each contained four bioreactors of 20,000 liters, as well as an automated finish packaging. Packaging and labeling of the building. Jacobs, engineering, hiring and construction manager (EPCM), has already begun construction of an expansion of $ 1.2 million, 400,000 square meters that will double the manufacturing capacity. This phase is scheduled to complete in March 2027.
Lindsay Gerding, Senior Vice President and Director of Jacobs’ life science operations, says that such a fast growth is understandable in a global pharmaceutical market where spending is expected to be $ 2 trillion over the next four years. Growth is largely based on advances in therapies for the aging of the world. This, he adds, has changed the role of companies such as Fujifilm Biotechnologies, which operate as contracts development and manufacturing organizations in pharmaceutical companies.
“When the CDMs focused more on producing low-cost and generic generic drugs, they now provide speed and scalability to get innovative medicines to market faster, allowing pharmaceutical companies to focus on developing and product tests,” says Rather.
Clipping collaboration
Not in vain, the design and delivery of a high -tech pharmaceutical manufacturing installation required equally aggressive calendar. The key, says Gerding, was to use a data -centered approach to which a digital template was created from consistent data models and standards. This, in turn, allowed the Jacobs design team to develop a flexible and modular design that would help accelerate the process of building the installation and manufacture process equipment for the installation.
“Not only did we have a 3D design model, but we were able to incorporate scripts …[rule-based algorithms]”This would automatically create models for replication, all with less effort,” says Rather.
“We were able to incorporate scripts … [rule-based algorithms]- This would automatically create models for replication, all with less effort. “”
—Lindsay Gerding, Senior Vice President and CEO, Jacobs
As Fujifilm planned biotechnologies planned for the Holly Springs complex is the model for a similar installation to build in Hillerod, Denmark, the Jacobs design team incorporated details to ensure simultaneous compliance with both the United States and Danish building codes, including the specification of interior environment improvements such as additional glass and behaviors. Another consideration was the fact that Hillerod’s buildings must fulfill the architectural requirements based on the castle of Frederiksborg, the historic headquarters of the kings of Denmark. As such, DSM buildings in Holly Springs, as well as those of future iterations, are limited in height up to approximately 80 feet.
As a complete EPCM, Jacobs’s construction team was closely involved from the outset, providing a constructibility entry that helped shape the design. The company -based approach also facilitated the use of 4D animated schedule development, allowing the project the transition perfectly in a construction phase that would also maximize the use of prefabricated modularized components and improve commercial collaboration in the field.
This approach would also help optimize project staff, which was essential for a project of this scope and size, says Jacobs Vice President and director of Executive Programs, Glenn Wakefield.
“It would be unrealistic to try to recruit that many workers did everything necessary on the site, given the shortage of employment,” he says, adding that the elimination of millions of construction hours in elevation through the prefabrication outside the place “would also make the project much safer.”
Scheduled for the end of August 2025, the initial phase of $ 2 billion included the construction of a complex of 1 billion square meters with two medicine substance manufacturing buildings, each containing four 20,000 liter bioreactors, as well as an automated packaging, packaging and labeling building.
Photo courtesy Jacobs
Construction blocks
Before putting these plans into practice, Jacobs needed for the first time to set up a construction equipment and identify supply sources, not an easy task in the 2021 post -construction construction environment. Instead of relying on the proposals for offers, Steve Ingle, the Director of Jacobs’ life science construction, says that a more personal team construction approach was needed.
“Many people were needed on the phone, explaining the project and seeing if they could provide what we were looking for,” says Ingle.
Preparation of the 150 -hectare site for construction was almost easier. Removing a 60 -foot elevation change required about 1.6 million m from land, and 200 tons of dynamite were estimated to exploit partially resistant rock. The proximity of the residential areas added another dimension of the complexity, which Jacobs addressed by using excess land to build a large berm along the perimeter of the site and install seismographs on the nearby lawns. Ingle adds a plant to the lot, which would produce 45,000 m of concrete, eliminated the need for more than 4,000 trucks.
Located in level slabs, the Shell buildings on the Holly Springs plant are framed with isolated panels. For the two phases of the project, the sections of the founding slabs of the DSM buildings are up to 18 inches thick, depending on the soil load requirements. Autonomous robotic ink printers are used to establish precise plans directly on slabs, helping to reduce clashes in the field.
“We tried to build as large as possible, while we assure us that we did not create something that could not be replicated elsewhere.”
—Steve Ingle, Director of Life Sciences Construction, Jacobs
The construction of the buildings must be carefully synchronized with the manufacture, test and installation of hundreds of modularized or skates process equipment, delivered by suppliers of members from all over the country. Local subcontractors make pipe racks for miles of wiring, pipes and behaviors that connect the systems.
Jacobs claims that more than 10 million tonnes of teams were received for phase 1. The largest “super-kid” system, a high-stability storage system of 150 feet consisting of more than thirty of 4,000 to 12,000 liters, was disassociated after the factory acceptance tests and sent to 25 trucks.
“We have tried to build as much as possible, while we have not created something that could not be replicated anywhere else in the world,” says Ingle, who likes the project to build 250,000 square meters, with several layers of complex support processes and equipment, which must be installed in the correct sequence.
After receiving the passage to build the second phase of the Holly Springs plant, Jacobs had the opportunity to implement the construction process improvements obtained since the last two years of construction. They include the launch of all the penetrations of the floor along with the slab, incorporating external coating clips into the prefabrication process and modularizing pits 35 feet deep for biological waste processes and tanks located in each of the DSM buildings.
As a result, says Jacobs, the first 10% of the second phase of the Holly Springs plant has already produced four months of saving hours.
“It is a unique opportunity for the craftsmen, supervisors and design team to immediately apply everything we have learned collectively,” says Ingle. “We have even identified some opportunities where prefabricated tasks are performed more efficiently in the field, such as making pipe racks that only carry a few lines.”
To allow the design of the building to be carried out and guarantee the simultaneous fulfillment of our Danish building codes, the heights of the building are limited to approximately 80 feet.
Photo courtesy Jacobs
Support Safety and Safety
Although many of the Fujifilm Biotechnologies Construction Teams and Systems are manufactured outside the place, Jacobs says that Holly Springs site is still full of activity. In summer 2024 he saw the population inside 2,500 artisan workers, along with hundreds of engineers/designers and construction managers.
To attract and, perhaps more important, to retain artisanal work for the project, Jacobs has provided services such as air conditioning toilets and rest rooms, a completely personal medical center and an open parking. In the same way, all the members of the project team occupy the same space in the project trailer complex.
“There are not us/them, but a single team of people working together to build the project,” says Wakefield.
The project team has also struggled to make the Holly Springs plant as sure as possible. With about 13 million hours of staff at the site registered from June 2025, the Fujifilm Biotechnologies project has won a total incident rate of 0.06, gaining the recognition of the North Carolina Department of Labor for exemplary safety performance.
In early August, Jacobs worked with Fujifilm Biotechnologies to begin production in phase 1, while expansion buildings were shaped closely. The installation of MEP systems will increase as the first process modules begin to reach the site, according to the company.
Standardization, personalization
In addition to providing a necessary manufacturing capacity for the pharmaceutical industry, Gerding ensures that the design and construction of clonable facilities used in Holly Springs can be applied for all or parts of other types of buildings that are provided to repeatibility, such as data centers and health care facilities. He states that they should not be cheeky and faceless structures.
“You can standardize basic manufacturing and operation spaces, while also providing a more personalized and sustainable feeling to laboratories, administrative areas and other spaces where employees interact,” he says. “These functions play a key role in customer ability to attract and retain coveted talent, which makes it a nice place to work and spend their time.”
