Dive Brief:
- Johnson & Johnson is investing more than $1 billion to build a contact lens manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, the company said Monday.
- The plant, which is under construction, is scheduled to be fully operational in 2028 and will add manufacturing, packaging and distribution capacity for J&J’s Acuvue contact lenses.
- J&J is building the facility as part of its previously disclosed plan to invest $55 billion in U.S. manufacturing, R&D and technology across its drug and device divisions through early 2029.
Dive Insight:
Last year, J&J outlined plans to build four new manufacturing plants and expand several existing sites as part of the $55 billion push to increase its capacity to make medicines and medical devices in the U.S. By the end of 2025, the company had invested about $12 billion under the expansion plan, J&J CFO Joseph Wolk said on an earnings call in April.
J&J’s investment in Jacksonville will support construction of a distribution facility, plus the installation of manufacturing and packaging technologies. The investment will make J&J’s supply chain more resilient, CEO Joaquin Duato said in a statement.
The statement makes no mention of the investment creating jobs. Rather, J&J said its outlay will support 3,500 Jacksonville employees. The company employs more than 3,500 people at its Jacksonville Vision campus, according to the region’s economic development organization.
J&J established a presence in Jacksonville in 1981 through the acquisition of Frontier Contact Lens and launched its first Acuvue lenses in the U.S. in 1987.
Today, J&J makes more than 1.7 billion Acuvue lenses a year for U.S. patients.
