By Kelly Cloud, Vice President, Economic Development, Life Sciences
Estimated reading time: 2.5 minutes
This February, Novartis announced its first facility in Texas, a new 46,000-square-foot radioligand therapy (RLT) manufacturing site in Denton, which will expand the company’s impact and global patient population.
As a major, global company and industry leader, Novartis’ decision signals to other biotechnology companies that Dallas-Fort Worth is a place with the talent, access and other attributes needed to support development of critical therapies—and to compete with top-tier life science metros in the U.S.
That’s certainly one reason I and the team at the Dallas Regional Chamber are excited about this win. It opens more doors for us as we continue to recruit and expand the life science sector here.
We’re also excited because the DRC has worked hard for the past few years—thanks to support from the team at Lyda Hill Philanthropies—to build our region’s brand and grow opportunities just like this to complement the successes at Pegasus Park, the long-established excellence of UT Southwestern and our other universities, and to leverage our growing talent and corporate life science base.
DFW can compete for major life science companies
We’ve built a pitch and better assembled the considerable life science assets already here, both university and corporate, to effectively present this region. We’ve trained our regional community allies, when needed, on what life science companies are looking for when locating. And we’ve logged a lot of frequent flier miles and time in touring vans to approach, meet and host companies, like Novartis, during their selection process.
During my visit to Novartis’ New Jersey site in August 2025, I met their team and saw firsthand their industry-leading technology. When I walked into the facility, it was immediately clear that patients are at the center of all that they do. Getting to know Novartis’ team—especially travelling to see them on their turf—was critically helpful when they visited us. It allowed us to tailor their evaluation and their time spent here in an effective way. It informed how we built and worked with local partners to host and answer their questions, meet their needs and give us our best chance of winning this exciting project.
When recruiting life science companies like Novartis, two critical advantages that we have are increasingly important:
DFW is the central gateway through which life science companies can reach patients and create impact
DFW’s central position—not only to coastal life science markets—but to a patient population of over 50 million people within a 10-hour drive is a key advantage for patient access, especially when working with time-sensitive treatments, like Novartis’ RLT. DFW International Airport, meanwhile, enables direct access to any destination in the continental U.S. within four hours, expanding patient outreach and global connectivity for Novartis’ critical treatment.
Novartis’ Denton RLT site “strengthens [the company’s] ability to meet growing demand, building the capabilities needed to deliver these next-generation treatments with the speed and precision they require,” said CEO Vas Narasimhan in his latest press release.
DFW Airport has also actively invested in preparing for these treatments’ unique demands, providing controlled environments along supply chains. Along with being one of two IATA CEIV Pharma certified cargo communities, DFW Airport houses the second-largest cold chain storage capacity in the U.S., proactively working on the front line of global innovation for personalized medicine.
DFW’s workforce is ready to meet demand
Novartis pioneered the first FDA-approved RLT, and DFW’s workforce is uniquely positioned to pioneer life science innovation and exceed the biomanufacturing industry’s ever-evolving needs. Our higher education partners demonstrate countless successes in partnering with various industries to create a highly-technical, innovative workforce, and our regional workforce training partners have built the necessary talent framework through grants and programs, like the EDA Good Jobs Grant and NCTM2 in Bridge Labs at Pegasus Park.
But we’re not starting from scratch. DFW has a robust and dynamic talent pool, ripe with translational skills. Our workforce excels in highly regulated, technical spaces, such as food and beverage, cosmetics, semiconductor and aerospace manufacturing. These nuanced industries demand a skilled workforce, and our regional partners are collaborating to expand our workforce’s skillsets in preparation for biomanufacturing.
The core of DFW’s success is regional collaboration, and it is the key to the DRC’s work in accelerating our region’s status from an emerging life science market to the industry-leading, central hub for biomanufacturing.
Congratulations to the Denton City Council and the City of Denton’s Economic Development team for their investment and partnership in welcoming Novartis to its first Texas home.