The Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO) WuXi STA has begun construction on a site in Middletown, Delaware. The company expects it to be operational in 2025.

This 190-acre pharmaceutical manufacturing campus will be the company’s second U.S. site and the first on the East Coast.

The site will be based in the Middletown Business Center at 1091 Industrial Drive.

WuXi STA says it expects the new facility will create roughly 500 full-time jobs by 2026.

The first focus of the new site will be formulation development, clinical and commercial drug product manufacturing services.

The site will focus on manufacturing various oral and injectable dosage forms. It will also offer packaging, labeling, storage and distribution services for clinical trial materials and commercial drug products.

The facility is expected to provide new supply chain services in the U.S. for both domestic and international customers.

Overall, WuXi STA has a dozen facilities based in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

In addition, it has three drug product manufacturing sites in Couvet (Switzerland), Wuxi City (China) and Shanghai.

“Over the next five years, WuXi STA plans to build a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in one of Delaware’s fastest-growing communities, bringing with it good jobs and economic growth,” said Delaware Governor John Carney, in a news release. “This campus is only possible because of Delaware’s world-class, innovative workforce.”

In July, WuXi STA opened a new continuous manufacturing plant at its Changzhou site, China.

In 2018, WuXi Biologics built a biomanufacturing plant in Ireland.