How a New FDA Program Could Bring Drug Manufacturing Jobs Back to the US

More than half of the prescription drugs Americans take are made overseas, and only 11% of the companies that produce active pharmaceutical ingredients are based in the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration. A new federal effort called the FDA PreCheck pilot program is trying to shift that balance, and for job seekers it could mean a fresh wave of factory and laboratory work. As Quartz first reported, the agency has selected seven drug companies, including Eli Lilly and Regeneron, to speed up the review of new domestic factories. At Metaintro, we track where hiring is heading, and this reshoring push points toward thousands of manufacturing, lab, and quality roles spread across several US states.

What is the FDA PreCheck pilot program?

The PreCheck pilot program is a new initiative from the FDA designed to make it faster and more predictable to build pharmaceutical plants in the United States. The agency began accepting applications on February 1, 2026, and announced its first group of participants on June 29, 2026. The core idea is simple. Instead of waiting until a factory is fully built to begin the long regulatory review, the FDA works with companies much earlier, so problems get solved during design and construction rather than after the concrete is poured. For workers, earlier certainty means projects are less likely to stall, and construction and staffing timelines become more reliable.

The program runs in two phases. In the first phase, called Facility Readiness, companies receive early technical guidance from the FDA and submit facility details through a document known as a Drug Master File, which lets regulators flag compliance gaps before a plant opens. In the second phase, Application Submission, participants get enhanced pre-submission meetings and earlier inspections, which are meant to shorten the wait between finishing a facility and actually making approved medicine there. Manufacturing-related deficiencies are among the most common and costly reasons drug applications get delayed, so cutting that friction is central to the pilot. The FDA received more than 80 requests to join and used a scoring system that weighed product type, how far along each facility was, the expected market timeline, and manufacturing innovation.

Why is US drug manufacturing coming back now?

The push to reshore drug production has been building for years, driven by supply chain scares that left hospitals short of basic medicines. When most active ingredients and finished doses are produced abroad, a single overseas disruption can ripple through American pharmacies within weeks. Reducing that dependence is the stated goal of the PreCheck effort, which the FDA frames as a way to strengthen the domestic supply chain and improve resilience. For the labor market, the practical effect is that large, capital-heavy factories are being planned on US soil, and those plants need people to build, run, and inspect them. This is part of a broader manufacturing story we have followed in coverage of whether AI could bring outsourced jobs back to the US.

There is also a workforce gap that makes these announcements meaningful rather than symbolic. Industrial employers have warned for years about a shortage of skilled production workers, a theme explored in reporting on the US manufacturing worker shortage. At the same time, factory hiring has been uneven, with some months of growth and some months of stall, as detailed in analysis of where factory jobs actually stand in 2026. A cluster of new pharmaceutical plants backed by faster federal review is exactly the kind of concentrated demand that can pull workers off the sidelines and into stable, well-paid roles, especially in regions that have watched traditional factory work slip away.

Which companies are building, and where?

Seven companies made the first PreCheck list, and their projects stretch from the Midwest to the Northeast to the Carolinas. Eli Lilly will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients at a site in Lebanon, Indiana, part of a broader buildout that the company has tied to a roughly $27 billion plan for four new US manufacturing sites. According to FiercePharma, Lilly announced an additional $4.5 billion for its Lebanon campus, and the company says its total US manufacturing commitment since 2020 now tops $50 billion. Lilly has estimated that its four-site expansion could create around 3,000 permanent jobs along with nearly 10,000 construction positions during the buildout. We have covered the company's manufacturing ambitions before in a look at Eli Lilly's multibillion-dollar biotech bet.

Regeneron is the other marquee name. The company is investing more than $2 billion in a facility in Saratoga Springs, New York, that will make biologic drug substance, sterile injectables, and novel protein therapies. As announced by Empire State Development, the project is expected to create 1,000 new jobs and support roughly 500 short-term design and construction positions, nearly doubling Regeneron's manufacturing capacity in New York. The remaining five participants round out the map. Amneal is planning sterile liquid small-molecule production on Long Island, New York. Cellares is building cell-based gene therapy capacity in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Fujifilm Biotechnologies is expanding cell culture biomanufacturing in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Kriya Therapeutics is developing gene therapy production in Durham, North Carolina, and Kyowa Kirin is making drug substances for rare diseases in Sanford, North Carolina. Together the group turns North Carolina, New York, Indiana, and New Jersey into anchor states for this reshoring wave, echoing themes from our reporting on the American tech and manufacturing success story.

What kinds of jobs could these plants create?

Drug manufacturing is not one job, it is dozens of them layered together, and each new plant needs the full stack. The most visible roles are production operators who run and monitor the equipment that makes and packages medicine, along with the maintenance technicians who keep that equipment online around the clock. Because these facilities handle sterile injectables, gene therapies, and complex biologics, they lean heavily on quality control and quality assurance staff who test batches, document results, and make sure every dose meets federal standards. That quality layer is unusually large in pharmaceuticals compared with other kinds of factories, which means steady demand for detail-oriented workers who may never touch the production line themselves.

Then come the science and engineering roles. Chemists and biological technicians run the assays that confirm a product is safe and effective. Process engineers and chemical engineers design and tune the manufacturing steps. Validation specialists prove to regulators that the equipment does what it is supposed to do, batch after batch. Above them sit industrial production managers and site leaders who coordinate the whole operation. And before any of these permanent roles exist, there is a construction phase that employs electricians, welders, pipefitters, and other trades, the same skilled crews we highlighted in coverage of how the AI boom needs electricians and welders. For anyone weighing a move into the trades, the timing lines up with a documented hiring crunch for skilled trades workers.

How much do drug manufacturing jobs pay?

Pay in this sector tends to run above the national average, which is part of what makes these openings worth watching. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $49,500 for all workers in May 2024, and many drug manufacturing roles clear that bar comfortably. Chemical technicians, who handle much of the lab testing in a pharmaceutical plant, earned a median of $57,790. Biological technicians, common in facilities making biologics and gene therapies like those at Regeneron and Kriya, earned a median of $52,000. These are roles that often start with an associate degree or a bachelor's in a science field, and they offer a clear on-ramp into the industry.

The management tier pays substantially more. Industrial production managers, who oversee the plant floor and its teams, earned a median of $121,440. Engineers, validation leads, and quality directors typically land in six figures as well. Because pharmaceutical work carries strict regulatory demands, employers often pay a premium for experience and certifications, and they invest in keeping trained staff. If you are considering one of these roles, it helps to know your market value going in, which is why we put together a guide on how to negotiate a higher salary offer. The combination of above-average pay, benefits, and relative stability is a big reason manufacturing towns compete hard to land these facilities.

Do you need a science degree to work in a drug plant?

Not always, and that is one of the most encouraging parts of this story for job seekers without a four-year degree. A large share of the headcount at a pharmaceutical plant sits in production, packaging, maintenance, and warehouse roles that hire on skills and reliability rather than a diploma. Many companies train operators on the job and offer apprenticeships that pay while you learn, an approach we covered in reporting on federally funded manufacturing apprenticeships. For workers looking to trade up from lower-paying service jobs, these positions can be a genuine step forward, and they connect to a broader set of high-paying careers you can enter without a degree.

The trades path is equally open. Building and maintaining a modern drug factory requires electricians, instrumentation techs, HVAC specialists, and pipefitters, many of whom earn well into the six figures with the right certifications and overtime, as we detailed in a rundown of 15 skilled trades that pay six figures. Even the science-adjacent roles are more accessible than they look. Community colleges near these new sites frequently build short certificate programs in biomanufacturing and quality that feed graduates straight into local plants. If you already work in an adjacent field like food processing, chemicals, or general manufacturing, much of your experience transfers, which lowers the barrier to making the jump.

What does this mean for your career?

For anyone within commuting distance of one of these seven sites, the practical takeaway is to start preparing now rather than waiting for job postings to appear. Large plants hire in waves, first the construction trades, then the equipment and validation specialists, then the production and quality teams as the facility ramps toward approval. Getting an early read on which employer is building nearby, and what roles they will need first, gives you a head start. It also helps to line up any relevant credential ahead of time, whether that is a biomanufacturing certificate, a quality certification, or a trade license, because these plants tend to prefer candidates who can contribute quickly under regulatory pressure.

More broadly, this reshoring wave is a reminder that stable, well-paid work is not disappearing so much as relocating. While headlines focus on layoffs in tech and office work, physical industries like pharmaceuticals are quietly expanding their US footprint, a pattern that also shows up in coverage of which US cities are hiring skilled workers. If your current field feels shaky, a pivot into drug manufacturing, healthcare-adjacent production, or the trades can offer durability that is harder to automate away. The skills you build in a regulated manufacturing environment, precision, documentation, and process discipline, travel well across employers and industries, giving you options even if any single plant changes course.

Which states stand to gain the most?

North Carolina is the clear early winner in this round, with three of the seven selected facilities landing in Holly Springs, Durham, and Sanford. The state has spent years cultivating a biomanufacturing cluster around its research universities, and this pilot reinforces that momentum. New York is the second big beneficiary, with Regeneron's Saratoga Springs project and Amneal's Long Island site both promising skilled roles and construction work. Indiana rounds out the leaders thanks to Eli Lilly's large Lebanon complex, which sits within a growing life sciences corridor. New Jersey, long a hub for the pharmaceutical industry, adds Cellares in Bridgewater. For workers in these regions, the concentration matters, because clusters create not just single-employer opportunity but a whole ecosystem of suppliers, contractors, and second-tier firms that hire alongside the anchor plants.

The ripple effects reach well beyond the factory gates. Each large plant supports jobs in logistics, facilities management, food service, and local construction, and it draws suppliers who may open their own operations nearby. That is how a single announcement can reshape a regional labor market over several years, a dynamic we have tracked in coverage of what recent factory growth means for US manufacturing jobs. Even if you are not aiming for a pharmaceutical role directly, living near one of these hubs can widen your options, because a rising industrial base tends to lift wages and hiring across adjacent trades and services. For job seekers weighing where to plant roots, following the map of new plants is a practical way to follow the work.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs could the FDA PreCheck program create?

A: Exact totals depend on how many plants reach full operation, but the two largest participants alone point to sizable numbers. Eli Lilly has estimated roughly 3,000 permanent jobs plus nearly 10,000 construction positions across its four-site US expansion, while Regeneron expects about 1,000 permanent jobs and 500 construction roles at its Saratoga Springs facility. Add the five other participants and the pilot could support several thousand permanent manufacturing, lab, and quality jobs over the next several years.

Q: What companies were selected for the FDA PreCheck pilot?

A: The FDA named seven participants on June 29, 2026, chosen from more than 80 applicants. They are Eli Lilly in Lebanon, Indiana, Regeneron in Saratoga Springs, New York, Amneal on Long Island, New York, Cellares in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Fujifilm Biotechnologies in Holly Springs, North Carolina, Kriya Therapeutics in Durham, North Carolina, and Kyowa Kirin in Sanford, North Carolina.

Q: Do drug manufacturing jobs require a college degree?

A: Many do not. Production operators, packaging staff, maintenance technicians, and warehouse workers are often hired on skills and trained on the job, and skilled trades like electricians and pipefitters are essential during construction. Science and engineering roles such as chemists, biological technicians, and process engineers usually need a two or four-year degree, but community college certificates in biomanufacturing and quality can open doors quickly.

Ready to move toward stable, well-paid work as US manufacturing expands? At Metaintro, we surface the roles and hiring trends that matter for your next move, from factory floors to labs to the skilled trades. Sign up to get matched with opportunities as this reshoring wave rolls out across the country.