With tensions running high amid COVID-19 and a trade war with China, the "onshoring" movement for drug production has escalated in recent months and seen some pretty sizable investments. Now, a Tennessee-based CDMO is jumping into the fray with an expansion in the state.

August Bioservices will build a 60,000-square-foot, commercial-stage plant in Nashville and expand its operations at an existing facility there as part of a $64.7 million outlay in the state of Tennessee, the CDMO said Wednesday.

The first phase of the expansion, set to be completed in late 2021, will flesh out August's existing facility in Nashville with "high-value technologies" to its fill-finish capacity, including freeze drying and terminal sterilization tech, the company said in a release.

Next, August will build its commercial- and late clinical-stages sterile injectables facility on site, a project for which August didn't specify a timeline. In total, the CDMO's expansion is set to add around 180 jobs in Nashville over the course of five years, the company said. 

While August didn't explicitly pitch itself as an "onshore" U.S. manufacturing partner—the company is targeting the "global pharmaceutical industry," it said—the company's expansion does match a growing trend of contract manufacturers making plays in the American market amid COVID-19. 

RELATED: Cambrex looks to fill 'onshore' API manufacturing demand with $50M expansion in Iowa

The new facilities—three of which will handle "large-scale" manufacturing, with the fourth dedicated to "mid-scale" production—are set to go online in early 2022, Cambrex said in a release. In total, the Charles City site will eventually employ 400 workers. 

The $50 million down payment is the sixth investment round Cambrex has made in Charles City in the last eight years, and it continues the CDMO's play at offering stateside API production to drugmakers looking for a "reliable" supply chain. 

RELATED: U.S. seeks to 'onshore' drug production in response to COVID-19. Is pharma even interested?

CDMOs aren't the only players laying down big U.S. investments, however. 

In July, South Carolina-based generics maker Nephron Pharmaceuticals pumped $215.8 million into its vaccine fill-finish capacity and warehousing space as part of an expansion effort in the state. The drugmaker aims to employ 380 new workers at the Saxe-Gotha Industrial Park site in Lexington County by 2024. 

In May, the Trump administration floated a four-year, $354 million contract with a fledgling company, Phlow Corporation, to build a generic medicine and API plant in Richmond, Virginia, and supply COVID-19 treatments produced there. Little known before the administration's interest, Phlow's deal can be expanded up to 10 years and to a total of $812 million.

Later that month, The government's investment arm, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, plotted a $765 million loan for camera maker Kodak to fuel its entry into generic pharmaceuticals. A series of questionable stock moves around that loan spurred an investigation by House Democrats and the Securities and Exchange Commission, but Kodak cleared itself of those allegations in September.