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$2.2B Bayer plant will be Ohio’s largest-ever international healthcare project

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — A historic $2.2 billion investment is coming to central Ohio from the German pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Bayer.

The processing and manufacturing plant will make drugs to treat cancer, heart disease and other conditions. It’s the state’s largest ever international healthcare project and the largest German direct investment in Ohio history, said Gov. Mike DeWine.

“This was a big investment by New Albany, but also JobsOhio. I think JobsOhio has put $30 million in this, and you’re going to see people trained right here and there will come out and go right into Bayer,” DeWine told reporters at the company’s announcement.

Bayer is also expected to get an incentive from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority at a later date.

The Bayer plant is estimated to bring 1,500 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs. The first production unit on the 200-acre plant is planned to come online in five years. Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said construction should begin by the middle of next year, and hiring of technical teams and other workers will start soon.

A rendering of Bayer's planned processing and manufacturing facility in New Albany.
A rendering of Bayer’s planned processing and manufacturing facility in New Albany. [JobsOhio]
“I would expect that 90-plus percent will be from Ohio,” Anderson said. And that’s just the way we do things. When we when we set up shop in a community, we chose that community. If we wanted people from someplace else, we would have gone there.”

Also at the event DeWine was asked about attending the funeral for a Haitian student in Springfield who died by suicide last month after losing temporary protected status. DeWine said as parents who lost their 22 year old daughter Becky in a car crash in 1993,, they empathize with the parents of 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bell.

“We have some understanding of the great trauma and the sorrow that they face,” DeWine said. “So this will be parent to parent. No politics. Fran and I just want to be there for the family.”

The funeral was held Saturday afternoon, at the same time as a rally for U.S. Sen. Jon Husted featuring President Trump. The Trump administration ended TPS for Haitians in July, telling those immigrants they need to self-deport along with $2,600 stipends or wear ankle monitors while their cases are processed.