*

Novartis plans to build and expand 10 U.S. facilities

*

New facilities include six manufacturing plants and a

research

and development site

*

The construction will take place over five years, create

more

than 4,000 jobs

(Adds further detail from press release in paragraphs 5,7 and

9)

By Patrick Wingrove

April 10 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis

said on Thursday it plans to spend $23 billion to build and

expand 10 facilities in the U.S., as it grapples with renewed

threats of drug import duties from the Trump administration.

Novartis said it plans to build six new manufacturing

plants, some of which will make raw pharmaceutical ingredients,

as well as a new research and development site in San Diego,

California.

Novartis' drugs, including heart failure medicine Entresto

and breast cancer therapy Kisqali, are manufactured across 33

sites globally.

The new sites and extensions will be built over the next

five years and are expected to create more than 1,000 jobs for

skilled workers like engineers and scientists as well as another

3,000 support staff and construction jobs, Novartis said.

The company said it had yet to decide where to build four of

its new manufacturing plants, but that two used to produce

certain cancer therapies would be built in Florida and Texas.

The announcement comes two days after President Donald Trump

said the U.S. will soon announce a "major" tariff on

pharmaceutical imports, sending shares of drugmakers plunging.

"We believe we can manage the tariffs - though of course

they will be very painful - so while that is a factor (behind

this investment), it's not the driving factor," Novartis Chief

Executive Vas Narasimhan said in an interview, adding that it

aims to produce all the drugs it sells to Americans in the U.S.

rather than import them.

The Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker has previously said

it hoped to become a top-five player in the U.S. pharmaceuticals

market, the largest in the world, as part of a U.S.-first

strategy.

Over the next five years, Novartis' total investment in U.S.

operations is expected to reach nearly $50 billion, the company

said.

U.S. drugmakers including Eli Lilly ( LLY ) and Johnson &

Johnson ( JNJ ) announced their own U.S. manufacturing

investments earlier this year, with Lilly committing to spend

$27 billion on U.S. plants over five years.

Trump, who campaigned on a promise to boost domestic

manufacturing, has been piling pressure on drugmakers since

taking office to move medicine production to the U.S.

Industry trade group PhRMA has said it can take 5 to 10

years and $2 billion to bring on a new production facility in

the U.S. in part because of regulatory requirements.