India's Granules is adding manufacturing and 102 jobs to its U.S. site

India’s Granules bought a U.S. R&D facility in 2014 and is now ready to add manufacturing as part of plans to expand significantly in the U.S. market.

The company said this week that it will invest $35 million into its operations in Fairfax County, Virginia, with plans to add 102 jobs to the 75 it now has at the site. Granules is getting financial aid from a state jobs investment program, which VirginiaBusiness says amounts to $750 per job, or up to $76,500.

“Setting up a development and manufacturing presence in the United States was the first step we took as a company to meet our strategic focus on strengthening our global presence,” Priyanka Chigurupati, executive VP for Granules India, said in a statement. 

The Hyderabad, India-based company, which has had some sales operations in the U.S. for a decade, bought the Fairfax facility from Valeant in 2014, investing about $15 million to get up and running there. It currently is doing research and development work at the site, Chigurupati said today in a phone interview.   

The company will spend about $35 million over the next two years to add 50,000 square feet for finished dose manufacturing, as well as some office space. The U.S. facility will be integrated with its API facility in Vizag, where it also is expanding, Chigurupati explained.

Granules in February announced it would invest $84 million to do a significant expansion of the bulk drug site in Visakhapatnam. It is getting about  $47.5 million from the International Finance Corp. to help fund that project.