Healthcare Company to Bring Nearly 400 New Jobs to Durham, NC

DURHAM, NC – North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has announced that healthcare company, GRAIL Inc. plans to create 398 new jobs in Durham and will invest $100 million to support its new facility, over time.

Featuring both office and warehouse space, the new state-of-the-art laboratory facility will be located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.

Among the 398 new jobs, varying a range of positions, the average salary will be in line with the current average annual wage in Durham County of $71,756.

The project is estimated to grow the state’s economy by $1.2 billion over the course of 12 years.

Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, GRAIL’s scientists, technologists and clinicians are urgently working to revolutionize cancer detection. The company is pioneering a test that detects more than 50 cancers with a single blood draw. The company’s testing approach is supported by evidence from a population-scale clinical study program.

GRAIL’s SVP of strategic operations, Uplaksh Kumar describes the company’s North Carolina expansion as “an important step forward in making our pioneering, multi-cancer early detection blood test widely available to patients and healthcare providers across the country.”

Through its mission, GRAIL Inc. is aiming to meet the unmet demand for early cancer detection. Currently, there are existing screening recommendations within the US for five cancers, which represents less than 50% of cancers in individuals from 50 years old to 79 years old. According to GRAIL Inc., current screening does critically improve cancer outcomes, however, nearly 80% of cancer deaths are attributable to cancers with no recommended screening tests.

“Even in tough economic times, companies like GRAIL see that North Carolina is ready to support the life sciences sector with a strong workforce,” said Governor Cooper. “North Carolina had a solid foundation for job growth before the virus, and that will make the road to recovery faster in the coming months.”

GRAIL’s new project will be facilitated, in part, by a Job Development Investment Grant, which was approved by North Carolina’s economic investment committee earlier today. Utilizing formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs, the agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $5.2 million throughout 12 years. Payments for all JDIG’s only occur following performance verification by the departments of commerce and revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets. JDIG projects result in positive net tax revenue to the state treasury, even after taking into consideration the grant’s reimbursement payments to a given company.

As GRAIL selected a site in Durham County, classified by the state’s economic tier system as Tier 3, the company’s JDIG agreements additionally call for moving as much as $1,717,000 into the state’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account. The Utility Account helps rural communities finance necessary infrastructure upgrades to attract future business. Even when new jobs are created in a Tier 3 county such as Durham, the new tax revenue generated through JDIG grants helps more economically challenged communities elsewhere in the state.

Partnering with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of NC on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System and its NC BioNetwork, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Durham County, the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, Duke University, Alamance Community College, Durham Tech, Wake Tech, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, and Duke Energy.