Emergent BioSolutions reopened its manufacturing facility on Shawmut Road in Canton on Wednesday, Sept. 16, after a $75 million investment.

The company plans to add about 50 manufacturing, technical and operational positions at the site, according to a media advisory Emergent issued ahead of the ribbon-cutting. No hiring timeline has been announced.

For Canton, the reopening means a major employer is ramping back up on Shawmut Road with dozens of skilled positions after a period of cutbacks.

Joe Papa, the company's chief executive, and Bill Hartzel, senior vice president of manufacturing, hosted the ceremony. State Rep. Bill Galvin, state Sen. Paul Feeney and Secretary of Economic Development Eric Paley all spoke. CCTv footage showed Galvin and Feeney flanking company leaders at the ribbon-cutting.

The restart reverses a stretch of reduced operations at the Canton site. Emergent had scaled back the facility as part of a company-wide restructuring that cut about 400 employees across all divisions. The Canton reduction came in response to declining U.S. government purchases of medical countermeasures, BioPharma Dive reported.

At the time, the company said it would keep enough capacity at the site to ramp up production if new demand materialized. Emergent said the Canton investment will support biotech jobs in Massachusetts.

Emergent, a publicly traded firm headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is the maker of Narcan, the naloxone nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdoses. The company distributed 11 million cartons of Narcan across the U.S. and Canada in 2024, according to its annual report.

Narcan is produced at other Emergent locations, not the Canton plant. The specific products to be manufactured at the restarted facility have not been disclosed.