Gov. Pat McCrory awarded his first economic development incentives Thursday with the announcement that a French company will create 44 jobs in Durham.
bioMérieux, a health diagnostics company, plans to invest $48.3 million in its Durham facility over the next three years. It will receive a $220,000 One North Carolina Fund grant and a local match if it meets the job and investment targets.
"I applaud the One North Carolina Fund," bioMérieux CEO Marc Mackowiak said in a statement. "It is a forward thinking initiative that will drive infrastructure and economic development in our state."
The company has more than 630 employees in Durham and provides diagnostic agents and instruments that identify infectious diseases and perform cancer screenings.
McCrory's office did not disclose the average salaries for the new jobs, but said the annual payroll will be $2.2 million. That averages to $50,000 a year.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), hydralic fracturing (or "fracking"), public utilities (both electric and natural gas) and health care. His beat includes Progress Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Biogen Idec and others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or