CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice today celebrated West Virginia University’s announcement that the WVU Innovation Corporation has officially taken ownership of the former Mylan pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Morgantown.
“There’s no doubt that when Viatris announced that they would be shutting down operations at the old Mylan plant, it was a real cannonball to the stomach for a lot of good people,” Gov. Justice said. “Every day, I kept thinking about the hardworking West Virginians in this community and how we had to do everything in our power to build a new future for this facility. I’m proud that’s exactly what happened. Now, we have an exciting new chapter to look forward to, where a facility that has already given us so much has the chance to continue producing medicines that are critical to our nation for years to come. When you have a pillar of our state as well known and as successful as WVU taking over such an important facility right in their backyard, you know the results are going to be tremendous.”
WVU and the West Virginia University Health System, commonly branded as WVU Medicine, will work together to oversee future development through a reconfigured WVU Innovation Corporation which will handle the daily operations at the facility.
In December 2020, Viatris announced that they planned to shut down the plant, cutting 1,500 jobs in the process. The same day, Gov. Justice got on the phone with the Viatris management team, securing a commitment from the company to work toward finding a new operator for the facility. Then, in August 2021, after months of work, Gov. Justice relayed WVU and Viatris’ announcement that the two entities would be negotiating a memorandum of understanding, with the aim of transferring the plant to WVU.
According to WVU’s announcement, the finalization of the purchase agreement is intended by both parties to result in the development of short-, medium- and long-term academic, employment and community opportunities for Morgantown and surrounding areas, as well as tuition scholarships for impacted Mylan employees. Discussions are already underway with potential tenants to lease space within the 1.1 million square foot facility.
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