Lilly Announces Strategic Changes to its Global Manufacturing Operations

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Eli Lilly and Company (Indianapolis, IN, www.lily.com) has announced several strategic changes to its global manufacturing operations to better support the company's current product portfolio and evolving drug pipeline.

Eli Lilly and Company (Indianapolis, IN, www.lilly.com) has announced several strategic changes to its global manufacturing operations to better support the company’s current product portfolio and evolving drug pipeline.

A major change is that construction of the planned insulin manufacturing plant in Prince William County, VA, will stop, as the company is now able to meet expected growth in insulin demand with existing sites and new insulin capacity that is being built in Sesto, Italy. The assembly operation for Lilly’s new pre-filled insulin pen, the “Humalog MirioPen,” will be located at Lilly’s delivery device assembly operations in Indianapolis, instead of the Prince William County site.

Significant new investments will be made in the Kinsale, Ireland, and Indianapolis parenteral operations to manufacture a new generation of biotechnology products. Lilly expects to launch one biotech product per year, on average, beginning in 2010.

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Lilly also announced plans to invest significant resources to manufacture biotech medicines, which, pending approval, are expected to launch early in the next decade. These investments will support the company’s emerging biotech pipeline that is anticipated to produce one new product per year, on average, beginning in 2010. Biotechnology-based programs and drug candidates now make up more than 30% of the company’s drug portfolio and pipeline.

Specific biotech investments include an expansion to the company’s site in Kinsale, Ireland, to manufacture active ingredients for future biotech products. In addition, Lilly will expand its Indianapolis parenteral operations so that the site can convert the biotech active ingredients made in Kinsale into their final dosage form. Both expansions are part of a $1.5-billion investment in the company’s biotechnology capabilities announced over the past five years. These investments include a newly completed biotech pilot manufacturing plant and a soon-to-be-completed biotech research laboratory, both located in Indianapolis.