We bring our purpose to life by discovering and developing innovative medicines. Over the last nine years, we’ve delivered 19 new medicines and hope to introduce several more by the end of the year. To ensure a reliable supply of these new medicines, we’re expanding our manufacturing footprint with investments in new facilities in North Carolina, Indiana and Ireland.
Lilly executives and local officials broke ground on March 27, 2023, for our new state-of-the-art biotech manufacturing campus in Raheen, Co. Limerick, Ireland. This nearly $1 billion investment at our next-generation biotech facility will be Lilly’s most technically advanced manufacturing site for existing monoclonal antibodies. This site will produce existing products and our pipeline of clinical products by 2026. The campus is expected to employ around 300 people across various disciplines. Recruitment will begin in early 2023.
"Lilly is entering an exciting period of growth, and we are committed to delivering innovative medicines to patients around the world,” said Edgardo Hernandez, senior vice president and president, Lilly Manufacturing Operations. "Expanding our manufacturing footprint in North Carolina and Ireland enables us to continue to produce today’s medicines while providing additional capacity to manufacture the medicines of tomorrow.”
In Concord, Lilly plans to invest $1 billion to create a new injectable products and devices manufacturing site, along with nearly 600 jobs. Additionally, the company plans to invest $500 million in Limerick to create a new biologics active ingredients site, as well as more than 300 jobs. Lilly will hire scientists, engineers and manufacturing personnel at each site to ensure we can reach more people with life-changing medicines at a greater pace.
In 2020, Lilly made our first manufacturing investment in North Carolina at Raleigh/Durham’s Research Triangle Park, the largest research park in the U.S. Together with our initial investment, the new facility in Concord will allow Lilly to take full advantage of the state’s reliable manufacturing workforce and partner with top-tier research and medical institutions as well as community colleges with strong programs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
While Lilly’s presence in North Carolina is newly established, the company has been in Ireland for more than 40 years. Lilly’s first investment in Ireland began in 1978, with the purchase of a farm in the West Cork countryside of Dunderrow, near Kinsale. Since our initial investment, Lilly has continued to grow our footprint in Ireland in part because of supportive government policies that value life science discoveries and innovation. With this new investment in Limerick, Lilly will expand our manufacturing network for biologic active ingredients, support demand for existing products and play a key role in bringing our robust pipeline, including our promising neurodegeneration portfolio, to people around the world.
Lilly expects to make more investments in manufacturing as we work to create medicines, in areas like diabetes, neurodegeneration, cancer and immunology, that make life better for people around the world.
00:00-00:06
[Scenes of Limerick, Ireland]
00:07-00:11
[The Lilly logo appears over a shot of the Limerick countryside]
00:12-00:24
[Dave stands in a grassy field. An animated sketch of the future Lilly manufacturing site appears in the background]
Dave: Hi, everybody, and welcome to Lilly Limerick. My name is Dave Riordan and I'm the site head for Lilly's newest manufacturing site, which would be situated here in Raheen Business Park on this 86 acre site. Over the coming 3 or 4 years,
Caption: DAVE RIORDAN
Caption: VICE PRESIDENT – LILLY LIMERICK SITE HEAD
00:25-00:33
[Drone shots show the construction site where the future Lilly manufacturing site is being built]
Dave Voiceover: this site will expand Lilly's existing monoclonal antibody manufacturing capacity and will be used to manufacture existing products and our pipeline of clinical products that will help patients all over the world.
00:34-00:45
[Dave stands in a grassy field. An animated sketch of the future Lilly manufacturing site appears in the background]
Dave: By the time we're fully operational, we hope to have between 3 and 400 people fully employed here directly. Those people will come from a whole variety of disciplines; engineering, science, supply chain management, operations, among many, many others.
00:46-00:50
[Timelapse footage shows construction equipment building the Limerick manufacturing site]
00:51-01:07
[Dave stands in a grassy field. As he talks, an animated sketch of the lab/admin building and a parking lot appears behind him]
Dave: To my right here, you see the Lab/Admin building and this will house our employee services area where we will have facilities such as cafeteria, gymnasium, general meeting spaces and office spaces for our employees. The other half of that building will host our QC and Technical Service laboratories, where we perform a variety of experiments
01:08-01:12
[a drone shot shows three workers standing by an excavator at the construction site]
Dave Voiceover: and all of our quality control testing on our products prior to shipping them to our customers.
01:13-01:17
[Timelapse footage shows construction equipment building the Limerick manufacturing site]
01:18-01:41
[Dave stands in a grassy field. As he talks, an animated sketch of the production facility appears behind him]
Dave: To my right, you can see the production facility, which is the heart of any manufacturing operation. The building would be 4 stories high and will house all of the steps for our upstream and downstream manufacturing process. We're going to use a combination of state of the art, industry leading manufacturing technologies and digital technologies, such as process control and automation, and data analytics to ensure we can produce the maximum from our facility at any given time.
01:42-01:47
[A drone shot shows a grassy field where the manufacturing site will be constructed. An animated sketch of solar panels appears on the field]
Dave Voiceover: So operating with environmental responsibility is a key goal
01:48-01:58
[Dave stands in front of the grassy field. An animated sketch of a solar farm appears behind him]
Dave: for Lilly globally, and we've designed that into our site here in Limerick. One of the main elements that we're incorporating is a solar farm that would be positioned here behind me, that would provide electrical power for our manufacturing operations.
01:59-02:03
[Puddles of rainwater on the grassy field appear in closeup]
Dave Voiceover: Other elements we have included to meet this goal include rainwater harvesting, and we will have a strong
02:04-02:08
[Dave stands in front of the grassy field featuring the sketch of a solar farm behind him]
Dave: ongoing commitment to maintaining the ecological biodiversity of the existing site.
02:09-02:11
[Dave wears a hardhat as he walks through an archway at the construction site that says “Lilly Limerick Project; Thank you for working safely; you are now entering a PPE Free Zone”]
Dave Voiceover: So we're here now in the construction phase of the project,
02:12-02:17
[Dave stands in front of the construction site, wearing a hard hat and protective glasses]
Dave: where we have about 300 people every day working to transform the vision for Lilly Limerick into a reality.
02:18-02:20
[Workers wearing hardhats and reflective vests work at the construction site]
Dave Voiceover: At Lilly manufacturing, our mantra is safety first
02:21-02:26
[Dave stands in front of the construction site, wearing a hard hat and protective glasses]
Dave: and quality always, and we work really closely with the project team to ensure that's always top of the agenda.
02:27-02:31
[Dave walks around the construction site wearing a hardhat, protective glasses, and a bright yellow jacket with the Lilly logo on the back]
Dave Voiceover: Our timeline of 36 months is very ambitious, but we hope to be manufacturing medicine for human use here
02:32-02:33
[Dave stands in front of the construction site, wearing a hard hat and protective glasses]
Dave: in 2026.
02:34-02:35
[Muddy construction equipment rolls through the frame]
02:36-02:43
[Dave walks around the construction site wearing a hardhat, protective glasses, and a bright yellow jacket with the Lilly logo on the back]
Dave Voiceover: Engagement with our communities is very important to Lilly and we want to maintain that tradition here in the Lilly Limerick. We've already established links with our neighbors,
02:44-02:52
[Dave stands in front of the construction site, wearing a hard hat and protective glasses]
Dave: our local universities and schools and other community groups, and we look forward to growing those in the future and having a positive impact on our community and our environment.
02:53-02:54
[Dave gazes out at the construction site, wearing a hard hat and protective glasses]
02:55-02:57
[A sign at the construction site appears, featuring the Lilly logo and the word “Safely”]
Dave Voiceover: So we're really excited to see the new campus take shape,
02:58-03:01
[Dave stands in front of the construction site, wearing a hard hat and protective glasses]
Dave: and we look forward to the journey ahead and all that the future holds for Lilly Limerick.
03:02-03:05
[The Lilly logo appears over drone footage of the Lilly Limerick construction site]
03:06-03:10
[The Lilly logo remains centered as the background fades to white]
Caption: ©2023 Eli Lilly and Company. All rights reserved.
Caption: This video has been developed and funded by Eli Lilly and Company.