Manufacturing & quality

Lilly lab employee looking at a colleague with a collection of beakers holding solution in the foreground

Everyone deserves a chance at health

That’s why we’re working around the clock to bring medicines to
people around the world. Whether it’s updates to existing sites or
building new state-of-the-art facilities, continual investments in
manufacturing expand our capacity to meet demand and deliver next-
generation medicines.
man in manufacturing working with scientific machinery

Making medicines:
safety first,
quality always

Have you ever wondered what it takes to make medicine? For most people, it’s not something you think about. That’s not the case for us. Manufacturing and Quality (M&Q) is a critical part of our mission and a responsibility we take seriously. Tens of thousands of employees work daily to ensure the quality and consistency of manufacturing of  our medicines.
But our manufacturing focus goes beyond the demands of today. We’re investing in the future. From the time a medicine shows promise in a clinical trial, we’re planning and preparing for the potential approval of the medicine, including investing in new facilities. We’ve launched 21 new medicines since 2014, with more expected in our pipeline. That’s why we’re constantly pursuing innovative ways to scale our global production and help more people—always with safety and quality standards front 
and centre.

What does it take to make the medicines of tomorrow?

Our pipeline of potential future medicines—and their potential to help millions more patients—is driving the most significant manufacturing expansion in our history.
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Investing in

significant manufacturing network expansion

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Using technology

to work faster while maintaining safety and quality

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Leveraging external partners

to enable more efficient delivery of medicines

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Tip jar icon
Investing in
significant manufacturing network expansion
bulleted-icon-list-item, icondescription-fs-24px
cpu icon
Using technology
to work faster while maintaining safety and quality
bulleted-icon-list-item, icondescription-fs-24px
Factory icon

Leveraging external partners

to enable more efficient delivery of medicines

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Huntsville, Alabama, USA

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We plan to invest more than $6 billion in a next-generation manufacturing site focused on small molecule synthetic and peptide medicines across various therapeutic areas.

Read more about the new Alabama site.

Katwijk, Netherlands

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This $3 billion investment will enhance our supply chain resilience and expand manufacturing capacity for our oral medicines across key therapeutic areas.

Read more details about the new Netherlands site.

Carolina, Puerto Rico, USA
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A $1.2 billion investment will expand and modernize our existing site, integrating advanced technologies and automation to support the reliable supply of high-quality oral medicines.

Read more about the expansion of the Puerto Rico site.

Houston, Texas, USA

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We plan to invest more than $6.5 billion in a new site that will focus on manufacturing small molecule synthetic medicines across our focus areas of cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience.  Read more about the new Texas site.

Goochland County, Virginia, USA

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The first of four new sites to join our U.S. manufacturing network in 2025, the Goochland County, Virginia facility, will make cancer, autoimmune and other advanced therapies. The $5 billion site will be our first dedicated active pharmaceutical ingredient plant to support bioconjugate and large molecule medicines.

Read more details about the new Virginia site.

Kenosha County, Wisconsin, USA

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We announced a $3 billion expansion of the injectable manufacturing facility which we acquired in April 2024 in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, to support the increased demand for Lilly medicines. The acquisition, expansion and additional purchases of land and the adjacent warehouse bring our total planned investment in Wisconsin to $4 billion—the single largest U.S. manufacturing investment outside of our home state of Indiana. Medicine production at the existing state-of-the-art facility and the construction of the expansion are both planned to begin in 2025.
Read about the Kenosha County facility acquisition.

Read about the Kenosha County facility acquisition.

Read about the $3 billion expansion of the Kenosha County facility.

Limerick and Kinsale, Ireland

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The announcement of an additional $1 billion expansion of our Limerick manufacturing site brings the total investment to $2 billion. When complete, the facility will be a fully integrated site with advanced technologies including machine learning, AI and automated robotics systems designed to increase manufacturing speed and efficiency and support a reliable supply of safe Lilly medicines. The biologic active ingredients for our Alzheimer’s disease portfolio and future medicines will be produced at the Limerick facility.

Our Kinsale site employs a digital-first process that integrates continuous manufacturing technology to create a new manufacturing platform for complex peptides. An additional $800 million expansion to Kinsale’s pivotal site will help meet the demand and maintain a safe and reliable supply of Lilly’s diabetes and obesity medicines.

Read about the $1 billion expansion of the Limerick site.

Lebanon, Indiana, USA

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Our total investment in manufacturing facilities in Lebanon is $9 billion. This is the single largest investment in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing of synthetic medicines in U.S. history. In addition to delivering next-generation therapeutic modalities, including genetic medicines, we will boost production of API at this site.

Read about the $9 billion investment in the Lebanon, Indiana, manufacturing facility.

Research Triangle Park and Concord, North Carolina, USA

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We have invested nearly $3.7 billion in North Carolina, bringing state-of-the-art facilities and more than 1,000 new jobs to campuses in Research Triangle Park (RTP) and Concord. These facilities produce injectable medicines and delivery devices for Lilly medicines, helping to connect more people to the treatments they need for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, endocrine and neurodegenerative conditions.


Read about the Research Triangle Park expansion.

Read about the Concord investment.

Alzey, Germany

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A $2.5 billion high-tech manufacturing site in Alzey, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. This new facility will further expand the company’s global injectable product and device manufacturing network and support increased demand for Lilly medicines, including its diabetes and obesity portfolio.


Read about the Alzey manufacturing site.

Watch Lilly engineer Beata's video

[00:01]
Music starts
The 'Lilly' logo appears on a red background
Text on screen says Beata Barati, Senior Robotics Engineer

[00:03]
My name is Beata Barati, an engineer at Lilly.

[00:05]
Beata sits on a chair in the office looking to camera.


[00:06]
I've been here going on three years. I did not think I was going into the pharmaceutical industry. My interest was biomedical engineering for the purpose of designing prosthetics. That's really, when I went into college that's what I thought I was wanting to do. It changed significantly because I had an awesome internship at Lilly where they asked me, where are your interests or passions, and I said, robots are cool. I saw robots at Lilly and I said, I want to dabble in that. With my mechanical engineering background I found interest in the mechatronics aspects of it and the technical aspects of it. I gave it a shot and I loved it, and it's turned into now my career is robotics.


[00:40]
The biggest fulfillment I get out of my career is really the value that I feel like I can contribute and add to these teams. Going on three years at Lilly, I have yet to transition a role. I love what I do because I can be such a valuable contributor to all of these conversations. I have developed a strong technical expertise in the robotics area. Having that influence and being able to, a young female engineer out of college having that technical expertise, I feel so much support from the other women engineers around me and the allyship from men. I have never had a bad experience at Lilly.


[01:15]
You are able to mold your career and your future, and you have such an impact at Lilly if you're able to voice the changes that you want to make.


[01:23]
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Innovation Comes to Life in Manufacturing

The push towards breakthrough discoveries isn’t confined to our labs. Innovation is embedded in all we do and helps us continue to find better, smarter, faster ways to reach more people.
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Innovation comes to life in manufacturing

The push towards breakthrough discoveries isn’t confined to our labs. Innovation is embedded in all we do and helps us continue to find better, smarter, faster ways to reach more people.
Lilly scientist working in a lab

Manufacturing responsibly

Every detail related to our manufacturing efforts is a carefully calculated decision to ensure we’re responsible in our practices and thoughtful in our environmental and economic impact. With each new facility, we’re finding ways to support our larger sustainability goals by being closer to carbon neutral and using renewable energy. As we expand to new areas, we’re providing opportunities and resources to local communities. We’ve committed to creating more than 3,000 new manufacturing-related jobs. And we’re also finding local, diverse suppliers to help create cutting-edge facilities that can efficiently move our medicines beyond our walls. We’re focused on making medicines and reaching the people who need them while staying true to our company values.

What it takes to make a medicine

We often hear about the investment it takes to find the next great medicine. But ensuring those medicines can reach the people who need them also takes significant resources and can be just as complex. Our M&Q teams are constantly evolving and expanding capabilities to find the most cutting-edge ways to deliver. The teams are responsible for a diverse set of products and systems that help us create the active ingredients, the medicines themselves, and the devices to package and deliver those medicines. It's a complex, methodical, 
science-based process.

These sites require significant resources: specialized equipment, top-of-the-line facilities and highly skilled employees. We’re using robotics, automated guided vehicles, automated warehousing, and highly automated equipment to speed production. At one of our most recent sites using this technology in North Carolina, we are capable of doubling production compared to our other facilities. As we use more automation, we’re also investing in our team, providing extensive technical expertise and training for operators, technicians, engineers and scientists.

The flow of active ingredients to drug product to delivery devices to delivering medicines

Watch Syd's video

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A woman walks through an industrial hallway(00:01):
If you are looking for a job that will benefit you in the present and the long run,

(00:07):
A woman is at a desk holding a clipboard
(00:08):
Lilly is definitely the company that you want to go for.

(00:10):
A woman is smiling in a bright hallway
(00:11):
My name is Sydney Blane, but everybody calls me Syd. I'm an operator here at Lilly, and I work in manufacturing.

(00:17):
Sydney and another woman are using an industrial device
(00:18):
Coming to a company like Lilly, your growth paths are unlimited. You can go from operations to quality control or quality assurance, or you could become a process engineer.

(00:30):
Sydney is filling up vials in a lab

(00:31):
You can move throughout this company where you see fit. You're in control of your own destiny here.

(00:36):
Sydney is using a microscope
(00:37):
Whereas other jobs, it was a short road, here is a long road.

(00:40):
Sydney and another woman are walking through a hallway
(00:41):
In the five years I've been here, I've had the opportunity to meet with different people on every level.

(00:46):
Sydney and another woman are sitting and talking in a lounge

(00:47):
I've had video chats with our VP of manufacturing. I had a coffee and chat with the CEO of Lilly, Dave Ricks, just the other week. It's nice to feel included on every level and respected from every level. Like, hey, you're not just a button pusher…

(01:03):
Sydney and two other women are talking in a lab

(01:04):
or a medicine maker out there in the field.

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Sydney and two other women walk up a staircase

(01:06):
You actually matter here. Your input matters here.

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Sydney is using an industrial device

(01:08):
Your voice matters here.

(01:10):
Sydney is at a desk using a computer

(01:11):
I love to work here. It feels like a sense of accomplishment.

(01:14):
Sydney is filling a small container with liquid

(01:15):
I'm contributing to this company that's contributing to society and the world. If you're looking for a career versus just another job,

(01:23):
Sydney and another woman are sitting and talking in a lounge

(01:24):
Lilly is definitely the place you want to work.

(01:26):
Sydney is smiling in an industrial room

(01:29):
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More than making medicine

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The people behind the medicines

Thousands of employees are behind the scenes ensuring our medicines meet our quality and safety standards. A big part of making sure we have the right people on our team is making sure our employees are supported; empowered to learn and grow; and that we’re prioritizing their well-being and safety.

It takes diverse talent to make the medicines that so many around the world count on. From engineers who help continuously improve our facilities, equipment and processes, to technical services and operations team members who are front and center controlling production, every person in M&Q plays an important role in changing people’s lives.