Eli Lilly plans to invest an additional $1.6 billion and add another 200 new jobs at its two new manufacturing sites in Boone County, Indiana — bringing the company's total commitment to $3.7 billion and up to 700 new jobs.
According to the drugmaker, its commitments to the two sites — which are both within LEAP Innovation Park — represent the largest manufacturing investment at a single location in the company's history.
The new facilities will expand Lilly's manufacturing network for APIs, support increased demand for existing Lilly products and play a role in bringing next-gen therapeutic modalities to patients globally.
The 200 additional jobs will be positions for highly skilled workers, such as engineers, operating personnel and lab technicians,.
While it had its wallet open, Lilly also committed $15 million over five years to the Ivy Tech Foundation to fund up to 1,000 scholarships for individuals interested in pursuing careers in pharma manufacturing. The new Lilly Scholars program will create a scholarship and an experiential learning program at Ivy Tech Community College for high school and college students who intend to pursue pharma careers.
The investment comes as the industry continues to struggle with trained workforce shortages. Traditional training methods are proving one-dimensional and simply not producing pharma workers who can “hit the plant floor running.” With help from academia, the pharma industry is at long last beginning to address this problem and subsequently rethink workforce training,
