Novartis, which is a world-leading innovative medicines company, has gone ahead and announced its plans on January 09, 2026, to build its fourth US radioligand therapy – RLT manufacturing facility at Florida’s Winter Park. This built-for-purpose and state-of-the-art facility is another milestone in the $23bn US investment that the company announced in April 2025, thereby further expanding its manufacturing capabilities so as to meet the growing demand for cutting-edge cancer treatments. It is quite apparent to note here that Novartis is indeed scaling its US manufacturing so as to bring innovative medicines much closer to patients just to make sure that the treatments that get offered are researched and made and also rolled out fast with immense reliability and provide access to the communities where people live.
The fourth US radioligand therapy facility at Winter Park, Florida, with a spread of around 35,000 square feet, is expected to come online by 2029 and is sure to strengthen the specialized supply chain in addition to the manufacturing capabilities of Novartis throughout its network of RLT production facilities. This new facility is sure going to optimize the RLT medicine delivery to patients located in the southeast US and also enable the company to maintain its steady rate of over 99% of doses that are administered on the planned day as the potential when it comes to this promising treatment modality consistently expands.
CEO of Novartis, Vas Narasimhan, said that “Building this new facility in Florida marks an important step in fulfilling the promise of RLT for patients.” He further added that “Radioligand therapy has fundamentally changed how we approach certain cancers, and our growing US manufacturing network ensures we can continue to deliver these critical medicines with speed and reliability to patients who need them.”
RLT is a precision treatment type that pairs a tumor-targeting molecule or ligand with a therapeutic radioisotope, thereby enabling radiation to get delivered directly to the tumor while at the same time minimizing harm to the surrounding healthy tissue. Every RLT dose gets individually prepared, and the delivery is undoubtedly highly time sensitive. Proximity in terms of treatment facilities along with transportation hubs also plays a significant role just to ensure that patients receive their therapy fast and that too at the right location. RLT, with all its might, has the potential to transform oncology treatment and also get new alternatives to people who are living with cancer.
Novartis, being the only company having two FDA-approved RLT treatments along with an extensive RLT pipeline throughout many tumors and targets, has the global expertise when it comes to this cutting-edge technology platform that’s transforming cancer care. Notably, this knowledge has indeed fueled advancements within the manufacturing techniques in order to build capacity and continuously deliver with confidence for both patients as well as healthcare providers.
RLT manufacturing needs to have a specialized talent, which is indeed a key factor in determining the location for each new facility. Apparently, if we look at Florida, it has consistently invested in higher education, especially in life sciences and technology, thereby helping to build the next generation of leaders. This aspect is indeed critical to driving forward the advanced manufacturing for platforms such as RLT. Due to a growing skilled workforce along with a regulatory and policy environment that greatly values pharmaceutical innovation, Florida as a state is pretty well positioned in order to become a leader when it comes to pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly said that “Thanks to deliberate, focused, intensified investments and world-class health innovation partnerships, we have led Florida to become a national and world-recognized leader for breakthroughs in cancer treatment, neurological innovations, and more.” “Novartis’ investment in manufacturing cancer medicines here in Florida where we’re already #2 nationally in both manufacturing for medicine and medical device technology is an incredible opportunity to welcome world-class innovators to our incredibly collaborative and impactful life sciences community.”
In the next 5 years, Novartis is going to further solidify its very strong US RLT manufacturing network. Interestingly, the new Florida facility is the fourth of the five existing or planned facilities. The company at present is investing in expansions of RLT facilities across Indiana and New Jersey. In November 2025, Novartis went on to confirm the completion of a new RLT facility based in California, and it also has plans to build a fifth location in the US.
Novartis and radioligand therapy – RLT
There is no shred of doubt that with the facility expansion in place, Novartis is reimagining cancer care with RLT for patients having advanced cancers. Through making use of the power of targeted radiation along with its application to advanced cancers, RLT is designed to deliver treatment directly to the target cells anywhere across the body.
It is worth noting that Novartis is also actively investigating the application of RLTs throughout cancer types as well as settings, having one of the deepest and most advanced pipelines within the industry, with trials in the gamut of prostate, breast, colon, lung, brain, and pancreatic cancers, along with certain other cancers. The drug manufacturer has established global expertise, with specialized supply chain and manufacturing capacities throughout its network of RLT production sites across the world.