RALEIGH – California-based Gilead Sciences, which makes the COVID-19 treatment patch, announced on Tuesday that it plans to open an important center in the Triangle.
The move will bring 275 jobs with an average salary of $ 142,175 for Wake County. The average annual salary in Wake County is around $ 63,500.
Gilead’s business services center will house the company’s human resources, purchasing and financial services operations, along with cybersecurity and other information technology functions.
“We look forward to introducing Gilead to the local community,” said Andrew Dickinson, Gilead’s chief financial officer, in a statement. “We are looking forward to welcoming many of the highly talented and highly qualified people who live in the Research Triangle region to work with us, as we seek to develop new drugs for people with unmet medical needs.”
“They are transferring many of their operational functions to our market, which is a great indicator of our ability to expand our life sciences market here. We are not just recruiting scientists and manufacturers, ”said Ashley Cagle, assistant executive director of Wake County Economic Development. “This is a reminder that, while we are fighting a global pandemic, good things happen in our community.”
Wake County was chosen instead of Atlanta for the installation, with the company citing the availability, diversity and cost of talent needed to fill the promised jobs.
“Obviously, we want companies that are responding to the pandemic to prosper and we are happy that they can do it here,” said Matt Calabria, chairman of Wake County Commissioners Council.
Calabria estimated Gilead’s local economic impact at $ 39 million a year.
“We are always happy to catch a big fish like this,” he said.
Another factor in favor of the Triangle: researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill helped develop remdesivir.
The company will receive about $ 10 million in tax incentives through an Investment Grant for Employment Development, which reduces part of the state taxes withheld at source if the annual job creation and investment goals are met. Job training will also be provided.
Gilead plans to invest about $ 5 million in creating the hub. The new jobs will be created by 2023.
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