Eli Lilly Biotechnology Center is shown in San Diego, California, March 1, 2023.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Eli Lilly On Tuesday, he said he will spend $ 5 billion to build a manufacturing installation in Goochland County, Virginia, to boost the production capacity of directed cancer and other treatments, the first in a series of new investments planned in the United States by the drug manufacturer.
The company announced in February that it would spend at least $ 27 billion to build four new national manufacturing plants, which adds to $ 23 billion in previous investments since 2020. Eli Lilly said it will announce the three remaining US sites this year and hopes to start making medications in the four facilities within five years.
Drug manufacturers have been struggling to boost their production in the United States, since President Donald Trump threatens to repress the industry with tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products. Trump has said that these levies will encourage companies to return to production after the manufacture of domestic drugs was drastically reduced in the last decade.
In a statement on Tuesday, Eli Lilly said that the new Virginia plant will develop active ingredients for cancer and autoimmune medications, along with other advanced treatments. It will be the first place of active ingredients and dedicated medications of the company for its bioconjugate platform and monoclonal antibody drug portfolio.
Eli Lilly said that the installation will particularly increase the domestic manufacture of specific treatments called conjugates of antibody drugs, a type of bioconado that joins a monoclonal antibody with a toxic “toxic load to kill cancer cells. Eli Lilly is among several pharmaceutical companies that currently develop or market these medications, which drug manufacturers are also studying in autoimmune conditions and other diseases.
“This is a new ability to allow the growth of the pipe. We have a series of new assets that will use both biological ones, but also these conjugates of antibody drugs,” said Eli Lilly Dave Ricks CEO in an interview with CNBC. “This site will be unique in the sense that we can do that kind of medication for us, we currently do not have that capacity in the company, and we even put it in the form of the pharmaceutical product, so in the road and send them.”
Ricks said the company will transfer some third -party production and “other nodes in our network, mainly from Europe”, to the new Virginia site.
Eli Lilly chose the state for the new plant “due to location, logistics, workforce and, frankly, only a place ready to use,” Ricks added. He said the construction had begun in the facilities in previous years for different industrial use.
“Now, public services and all those things are ready to roll, and we are in a hurry to put them into operation as our pipe progresses,” Ricks said.
David Ricks, CEO, Eli Lilly
Scott mlyn | CNBC
He said that “the main thing to build in the United States was really related to the fiscal situation” instead of the threat of pharmaceutical tariffs, and added that “it makes more sense to build in the United States than ever.” Ricks previously promoted the 2017 Trump Tax and Jobs Cutting Law to promote the company to increase its US manufacturing investments.
This legislation, approved by a Republican majority congress during Trump's first mandate, was the highest review of the Tax Code in almost three decades and reduced the corporate tax rate to 21%, among other efforts.
Eli Lilly said he will use advanced technologies such as automatic learning and artificial intelligence on the site, which “will allow the execution of the first half, all in support of the safe and reliable supply of medicines.”
The company said the site will bring more than 650 new jobs to Virginia, including engineers, scientists, operations staff and laboratory technicians. It will also create 1,800 construction jobs in the region, the company said.
The other US plants of Eli Lilly include sites in North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin.
The new investments in the United States are based on the success of the medication to lose weight of Eli Lilly Zepbound and the Mounjaro diabetes counter Novo Nordisk. Both companies have channeled billions to increase the manufacturing capacity for these medications, which has helped relieve the shortage of treatments in the United States.
But Eli Lilly's new investments are not only dedicated to current and future treatments of obesity and diabetes. The company is drawing its future beyond Zepbound and Mounjaro, hoping to manage medications from its wide pipeline for cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other conditions.
– Angelica Peebles de CNBC contributed to this report.
