HOUSTON – As the Houston region positions itself to become a national hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing, San Jacinto College is stepping up with a new multi-million-dollar training facility aimed at preparing the workforce of tomorrow.
The Center for Biotechnology, located at the college’s Generation Park campus, is set to officially open its doors on September 26. But training programs are already underway in the state-of-the-art facility, which features equipment like bioreactors, biosafety cabinets, and other tools that mirror real-world manufacturing environments.
“We have a beautiful training center that can meet workforce development demands,” said Christopher Wilde, an Associate Vice Chancellor at San Jacinto College. “The future is exceedingly bright.”
The center’s opening comes amid growing speculation around a massive pharmaceutical investment in northeast Harris County, a nearly $6 billion manufacturing site linked to pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, the company behind diabetes and weight-loss drug Mounjaro.
Documents reviewed by KPRC 2 Investigates reveal the plan, currently known as Project Savannah, will bring major investment and an estimated 604 full-time jobs once complete. Positions include engineers, scientists, operations staff, and lab technicians and that’s after hundreds of workers are brought in for the construction phase.
While the project has yet to be publicly confirmed, KPRC 2 has spent several days seeking answers from Eli Lilly, the Greater Houston Partnership, and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis’ office. All declined to confirm details, but the Partnership did say, “Houston has all the ingredients to be an ideal location for life science.”
“The potential of that type of investment is really exciting for us,” Wilde said. “This training center was created to support existing manufacturing efforts in the greater Houston region.”
San Jacinto College began planning the biotech facility two years ago, following the loss of an Amgen pharmaceutical investment in the Generation Park area. That setback sparked a rethinking of how the region could better prepare for future opportunities.
“It really spurred on kind of a new way of thinking about how we can meet that workforce need for future investment,” Wilde said.
Now, the college is proactively building a pipeline of skilled workers with hands-on training and industry-aligned certifications. One key initiative includes a dual credit program in partnership with Sheldon ISD, allowing high school students to earn an occupational certificate in bio-manufacturing preparing them for careers immediately after graduation.
“What really excites me is the thought of students who are sitting in high school classrooms right now and don’t even know this is a future possibility for them,” Wilde said.
With this facility and the potential Eli Lilly investment, Wilde says Houston is emerging as a rising star in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector.
“The feeling is that Houston’s going to become the next pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in the country,” Wilde said.