Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced plans to invest $27 billion in manufacturing plants in the United States.
The plants will be constructed over the next five years and will create more than 3,000 jobs for scientists and 10,000 jobs for construction workers. Three of the sites will be used for manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and “reshoring critical capabilities of small molecule chemical synthesis,” the company said in a press release. The fourth location will “extend the company’s global parenteral manufacturing network for future injectable therapies.”
Lilly’s plans will “bolster its domestic medicine production across therapeutic areas.”
David A. Ricks, Lilly chair and CEO, said in a statement that the company’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. 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.”
He noted that the company’s move “reflects our commitment to stay ahead of anticipated demand for safe, high-quality, FDA-approved medicines of the future.”
Ricks added, “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act legislation passed in 2017 during President Trump’s first term in office has been foundational to Lilly’s domestic manufacturing investments, and it is essential that these policies are extended this year. We believe that our investments in America and upskilling our nation’s workforce will spark a significant ripple effect. For every job we create, many more will be generated, positively impacting the communities that host our innovative new sites.”
In December, Ricks joined then-President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the pharmaceutical industry and finding cures for cancer.
