Lilly Kinsale is home to a unique 50-hectare manufacturing campus where the worldwide supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients for many of Lilly’s innovative medicines is made. The campus is situated about twenty miles west of Cork in a countryside location between Kinsale and Innishannon.

It's not just the location that sets the Kinsale site apart - the work that we do here and the team that does it are what really make Lilly Kinsale a special place.

Uniquely in the biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland, the Lilly campus accommodates chemical synthesis, biotechnology and continuous manufacturing technologies - all inside one site boundary.

For four decades, Lilly Kinsale has been built on a team-based working environment where everyone takes pride in our contributions to the site and the company, and most of all the positive impact we are able to have on the lives of people around the world who depend on Lilly medicines.

Within the site, a highly talented team of over 1,300 employees are dedicated to the Lilly purpose of making life better for people around the world, through their commitment to making medicines with safety first and quality always.

KEY MILESTONES

1978 - The Lilly Kinsale site is purchased.

1981 - Production of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients at Kinsale commences in March, after a three-year investment programme.

2006 - The site expands to participate earlier in the life-cycle of innovative medicines, contributing to the scale up and preparation for launch of new medicines.

Kinsale announced as the location for manufacture of active ingredients for new large molecule biopharmaceutical medicines called monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), becoming a dual manufacturing technology campus.

2010 - Kinsale becomes a centre of excellence for manufacturing scale-up of small molecule medicines in preparation for launch, involved in late-phase product development and process optimisation.

2011 - Biotechnology manufacturing commences in new facility.

2016 - Investment announced for addition of continuous manufacturing technology called "Small Volume Continuous" (SVC), which gives the ability to run innovative new chemical reactions, as well as increased flexibility, efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability.

2017 - A need is identified for a pilot-scale biotechnology manufacturing facility to spearhead manufacturing innovation and productivity within the global Lilly biotechnology manufacturing network.

2019 - Lilly Kinsale commissions a new non-GMP pilot-scale biotechnology facility. The project team is recognised with the publication of a scientific paper in the journal "Science", and wins the "Process Innovation" in the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers "Facility of the Year Awards".

The journey of continuous manufacturing at Lilly takes another step forward with a decision to construct a larger scale continuous manufacturing facility at Kinsale. This facility is designed to again break engineering, scientific and information technology boundaries in terms of how it operates.

2021 - Lilly Kinsale wins Cork Chamber’s Overall Company of the Year

Ireland's largest solar farm at that time is officially opened by the Taoiseach. The 16-acre installation produces up to 5.6MW of power for the site

2022 - The first production of a new type of active pharmaceutical ingredient, a "synthetic peptide" is completed - another industry first in Ireland.

2024 – Lilly Kinsale's continuous manufacturing facility wins both the Innovation Category and Overall award at the global Facility of the Year Awards