Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant
Eli Lilly and Company plans to build four new manufacturing facilities in the country. However, the exact location of these plants has not yet been determined.
Three of the future U.S. sites will focus on manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients, reshoring critical capabilities of small molecule chemical synthesis and strengthening Lilly's supply chain, according to a Wednesday announcement. The fourth location will strengthen Lilly's global parenteral manufacturing network for future injectable therapies.
These new facilities will bring Lilly’s total manufacturing investment in the United States to more than $50 billion since 2020. Final site selections will be announced later this year.
"Lilly's optimism about the potential of our pipeline across therapeutic areas – cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience – drives our unprecedented commitment to our domestic manufacturing build-out," said
David Ricks, Lilly's chair and CEO. "Our confidence positions us to help reinvigorate domestic manufacturing, which will benefit hard-working American families and increase exports of medicines made in the U.S.A. This bold move reflects our commitment to stay ahead of anticipated demand for safe, high-quality, FDA-approved medicines of the future."
Across these four new sites, Lilly expects to create more than 3,000 jobs for highly skilled workers, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians.
Lilly said Wednesday the company is already in discussion with several states that have expressed interest in one of the four facilities. The company is also welcoming “additional interest” from other states until March 12.
Lilly has already established a presence in southeastern Wisconsin. The company announced last April plans to
invest $3 billion to expand a Pleasant Prairie-based sterile injectables manufacturing site the company had acquired months earlier from
Nexus Pharmaceuticals.
Lilly also purchased a 324,000-square-foot industrial building in the Village of Bristol for $40.8 million, near the former Nexus Pharmaceuticals building, and an additional 31 acres of vacant land surrounding that building for $10.2 million, creating a 53.5-acre site straddling the border of Pleasant Prairie and Bristol.
Wisconsin’s recent designation as a federal tech hub focused on biohealth could be attractive to a company like Lilly hoping to grow rapidly.
Last July, Wisconsin officially received $49 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration as part of the federal Tech Hubs program.
Biohealth tech hub leaders have expressed hope that Wisconsin’s federal tech hub designation will continue to attract new businesses, both large and small, to the state.
“Wisconsin’s bio health industry is already growing at a faster rate than other industries in Wisconsin,”
Mara Lord, chief strategy and growth officer at MCW, previously told BizTimes. “That’s in regard to jobs, supply chain, and even wages. That’s what we’re leveraging, that existing strength.”
Local economic development officials say they would without a doubt be interested in further discussions with Lilly.
"In the short time Lilly has been in Kenosha County, they have demonstrated that they are excellent stewards of the community and an employer of choice," said
Nicole Ryf, president of the
Kenosha Area Business Alliance. "We would always be interested in exploring ways in which we can support Lilly’s growth in our community."
