U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy just made a special visit to Northwest Louisiana on a campaign of economic development. On Friday, the senator toured the giant facility on live avenue in south Shreveport owned by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.
The idea is to bring back pharmaceutical manufacturing. Cassidy was surrounded by local economic development leaders as they brainstormed ways to find new ownership for the now-vacant facility. Those leaders are from the North Louisiana Economic Partnership (NLEP) and Louisiana Economic Development (LED). The NLEP reports that the site has the capacity to manufacture as many as four billion tablets a year.
Cassidy explained, “Now, here’s a facility, huge, with equipment within it that’s laid out for an industry to hopefully step in and pick back up where the former company didn’t. It’s also a moment in time. President Trump is putting tariffs on those countries that are currently making these drugs which is going to increase the cost of production, if you will, over there. So it might be the opportunity to have a lower cost of production here.”
