Lilly in Ireland

Lilly has been operating in Ireland since 1978 and today the company employs over 3,500 people across three sites and growing. 

Lilly’s first investment in Ireland began in 1978, with the purchase of a farm near Kinsale, in West Cork. Today, it makes active ingredients for Lilly medicines and reaches patients all over the world.  It boasts three state-of-the-art manufacturing technology platforms – chemical synthesis, peptide synthesis and biotechnology – making it a unique site globally.  

Lilly Global Business Solutions (GBS) in Little Island, Cork, was established in 2010.  In the decade since its establishment, it has evolved from shared service provider to global business partner. From Clinical Development, to Finance, to Patient Support, the GBS teams are now central to the end-to-end delivery of medicines that make life better for patients worldwide. Today the site employs almost 2,000 employees across 62 nationalities, speaking over 50 languages. 

Ireland’s third Lilly site, Lilly Limerick, is a state-of-the-art biotech manufacturing campus at a greenfield site in Raheen, Co. Limerick. Currently under construction, this “Next Generation Biotech” drug substance facility is on track to be making medicine in 2026 and will be Lilly’s most technically advanced manufacturing site to date. Currently, the site has 260 full time employees across a wide range of disciplines and is forecast to employ 450 people once at full capacity.   

The Lilly Ireland commercial team is part of our Northern European Hub and works across the country with healthcare stakeholders. The group's role is to help identify the needs of patients and healthcare professionals and to deliver pharmaceutical-based healthcare solutions. Their current areas of focus are diabetes, immunology, and oncology. 

Visit our careers page to find out about career opportunities at Lilly Kinsale, Lilly GBS or Lilly Limerick.