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Eli Lilly and Co. broke ground Tuesday on its $4.5 billion Lilly Medicine Foundry, praising the campus as a new model for drug development.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker said the Lilly Medicine Foundry, first announced last October, integrates research, process development and advanced manufacturing, streamlining the process of discovering new medicines and getting them to patients.
Lilly CEO David Ricks praised the foundry as a first-of-its-kind facility and part of the company’s efforts to bring more of its key research and manufacturing operations to the United States.
“We maybe know about a metal foundry or a chip foundry. In the same analogy, we think of this is a place we’ll turn molecules, like ingots of metal, into tools,” Ricks said. “In this case, tools to help cure and conquer disease.”
Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer, said the foundry will help the pharmaceutical giant in its quest to target devastating diseases such as ovarian cancer and Alzheimer’s.
“What we see more and more is a new, complex type of drugs that combine different elements in ways that have literally never been done before,” he said. “And that’s what the foundry will do.”
Lilly is expected to add more than 500 jobs at the seven-building, 1.2 million-square-foot facility in the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Boone County (LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace). Workers at the foundry will include engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians.
In addition, Ricks said the project will require more than 2,000 construction jobs at its peak.
Since 2020, Lilly has announced more than $50 billion in new U. S. manufacturing investments, including the projects in Boone County. In February, Lilly announced plans to add four new manufacturing sites in still-to-be named locations in the United States.
Speaking at the ceremony, Gov. Mike Braun said the state is working to supply Lilly with a skilled workforce through its efforts with Purdue University, Indiana University, Ivy Tech Community College and others.
“We’re organizing our state government to be an opportunistic place to supply that workforce,” Braun said. “It’s not just an important milestone for Indiana and Eli Lilly, it’s a very big step for strengthening America’s pharmaceutical supply chain.”
The foundry is expected to open in 2027.
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I guess Ricks had a change of heart about the abortion ban. Good! He should never have made the statements he did when it was announced. Lilly should stand for Life, not against it.
There are many people who have a very different view about when life begins, and under was conditions abortions are appropriate options for a woman to consider.