Eli Lilly builds 5 billion US dollar Virginia production facility
The Eli Lilly Biotechnology Center was shown on March 1, 2023 in San Diego, California.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Eli Lilly On Tuesday there was known that there will be 5 billion US dollars for the construction of a production facility in GOOLLAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA, to increase the production capacity for targeted cancer medication and other treatments -the first in a series of new planned US investments by the pharmaceutical manufacturer.
The company announced in February that it would spend at least 27 billion US dollars for the construction of four new domestic production plants, which has increased 23 billion US dollars in previous investments since 2020. Eli Lilly said that the three remaining US locations would announce this year and expect that he will make medication in all four institutions in all four institutions within five years.
The drug manufacturers have tried to increase their production in the USA because President Donald Trump threatens to clamp the industry with tariffs for imported pharmaceuticals. Trump said these taxes will encourage companies to enforce production again after shrunk dramatically in the past ten years.
In a publication on Tuesday, Eli Lilly said that the new work in Virginia and other advanced treatments would develop active ingredients for cancer and autoimmune medication. It will be the company’s first committed active ingredient and medicinal product station for its biokonjugat platform and the portfolio of monoclonal antibody medication.
Eli Lilly said that the facility in particular will boost the domestic production of targeted treatments, which are called antibody drug conjugate – a kind of biokonjugat that combines a monoclonal antibody with a toxic “payload” to kill cancer cells. Eli Lilly belongs to several pharmaceutical companies that develop these medication or currently market that drug manufacturers also study under autoimmune conditions and other diseases.
“This is a new capacity to enable a pipeline growth. We have a number of new assets that both biologics, but also these antibodies use drug conjugate,” said Dave Ricks, CEO by Eli Lilly, in an interview with CNBC. “This page will be unique in that we will be able to produce this kind of medicine for us – we currently do not have this capacity in the company – and even in the drug shape in the bottle of bottles and send it.”
Ricks said the company would move some production of third parties and “other nodes in our network, mainly from Europe” to the new location in Virginia.
Eli Lilly chose the state for the new facility “because of the location, logistics, the workforce and frankly only one side that is ready to go,” added Ricks. He said that the construction had started in previous years in previous years for other industrial use.
“Now there are supply companies and all of these things are ready to roll, and we are a bit in a hurry to put them into operation while our pipeline is progressing,” said Ricks.
David Ricks, CEO, Eli Lilly
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
He said: “The main thing in the structure in America really hung together with the tax situation” as with the risk of pharmaceutical tariffs, and added that “it makes more sense to build in the USA than ever before.” Ricks previously announced Trump’s tax cuts and jobs for 2017 to move the company to increase its US manufacturing investments.
This legislation, which was passed by a majority-republican congress during the first term of office, was the largest tax code overhaul for almost three decades and, among other things, reduced corporate tax rate to 21%.
Eli Lilly said that advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence at the location would use, which “enables the right to the first time to first and reliable care with medicines”.
The company said that the site would bring more than 650 new jobs to Virginia, including engineers, scientists, operating staff and laboratory technicians. The company said 1,800 construction work in the region.
The other US plants from Eli Lilly are locations in North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin.
The new US investments are based on the success of Eli Lilly’s weight loss medication Zepbound and diabetes coupent-mounjaro, which are bet on the dominance of the booming market for so-called GLP-1 medication with competing treatments Novo Nordisk. Both companies have introduced billions in the promotion of production capacity for these drugs, which has contributed to reducing the lack of treatments in the USA
However, the new investments by Eli Lilly are not exclusively devoted to current and future obesity and diabetes treatments. The company places its future beyond Zepbound and Mounjaro to provide medication from its wide range of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases.
– Angelica Peebles from CNBC contributed to this report.
