RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Global pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) plans to build a production facility in RTP, creating 462 jobs over the next five years, officials said Tuesday.
The Indianapolis-based company will invest $474 million in the plant, which will produce injectable medicines like insulin, as well as delivery systems like pens.
Lilly Chairman and Chief Executive Dave Ricks said his company is also rapidly developing new drugs for diabetes, cancer and autoimmune disorders.
“That means we need to expand manufacturing capacity to make Lilly medicines that are helping people with these serious illnesses all around the world and help us prepare for new medicines being discovered, yet to be discovered and developed in our laboratories,” Ricks said.
Lilly and some other pharmaceutical companies have come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill lately because of the rising price of insulin. Last year, Lilly announced it would make and sell a half-price, generic version of its namebrand Humalog insulin. Last week, the company announced two of its insulin pen systems will also become available at half the current price.
The state has approved a Job Development Investment Grant of up to $8.7 million for Lilly. The JDIG will rebate some of the state withholding taxes on the new jobs to the company if it meets annual hiring and investment targets over the next 12 years.
Durham County also will provide incentives to the company, and Durham Technical Community College will offer a customized training program for the plant’s workers.
The new jobs will pay an average salary of more than $72,000 a year, officials said, which is slightly higher than Durham County’s average of $71,750.
A Lilly spokesman said the company hopes to have the plant up and running by 2023.
The facility marks a return to the Triangle for Lilly, which had a presence in RTP back in the 1990s but discontinued lab operations in the area about 15 years ago.
