Eli Lilly expanding in Durham, plans to add 100 jobs

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Eli Lilly is expanding its presence in the Triangle, with plans to invest $450 million in a manufacturing facility that will employ at least 100 workers.

The company announced the expansion on Tuesday morning in a statement and confirmed to WRAL TechWire that the project will occur on the company’s existing campus in Research Triangle Park.

According to the company, the expansion will focus on supporting increased demand for the firm’s incretin products that can treat diabetes.

On Monday night, the company’s economic development project, code named “Project Carter,” was discussed during a public hearing at the regularly scheduled Durham County Board of Commissioners meeting.

According to a statement from Durham County, released on the entity’s Twitter page, Eli Lilly’s project was supported unanimously by the County Commissioners, who also approved an economic incentives package of $5 million to the drug company.

“Durham is very unique in that if you go to other counties across North Carolina, they actually have to give a lot more, a much higher percentage, because they don’t have the talent that we have,” Durham County Commissioner Nimasheena Burns told WRAL News reporter Monica Casey on Monday, addressing why an incentives package might offer as much as $5 million in incentives to a company. “They don’t have the resources that we have.”

The company plans to expand its existing presence in Research Triangle Park to build a new drug product and device assembly facility “for two prominent drugs” and for a second “a pre-filled syringe formulation, filling, and inspection line,” according to the agenda released publicly by Durham County ahead of Monday’s meeting.

“The company did not receive incentives from the state for this expansion,” a spokesperson for Lilly told WRAL TechWire on Tuesday.

Durham County looks to land hundreds of biotech jobs with economic incentives

Continued expansion in NC

Eli Lilly has committed to invest about $4 billion to new manufacturing facilities in North Carolina since 2020, according to a spokesperson. That includes a commitment to invest $474 million in Research Triangle Park in 2020, which the pharmaceutical company followed with the acquisition of additional land on which further expansion could occur.

“Expanding our operations at Research Triangle Park will accelerate the rate at which we can produce medicines that patients rely on to address serious health challenges like diabetes,” said said Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice president and president, Lilly Manufacturing Operations in a statement. “We’re on track to achieve the goal we shared in November 2022 of doubling incretin capacity by the end of this year, but this investment is key to ensuring even more patients will have access to medicines they need in the future.”

The company is also building a $1 billion facility in Concord.

“When companies already in North Carolina choose to expand here, it reaffirms our status as the best state to do business,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement. “Our strong communities and our dedicated, well-trained workforce will help Lilly continue to succeed.”

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1000 jobs coming to NC

As a part of the company’s expansion, it plans to deliver the new facility by 2027, then hire at least 100 workers with the majority of those positions entry-level roles that average at least $56,400, WRAL TechWire reported yesterday.

“There’s a reason why almost 70% of the biopharma jobs come here, the medicine manufacturing, the bioanalytics jobs, it’s because we have the talent here,” said Burns.

And the company has committed to make “reasonable efforts to participate in workforce partnerships with local organizations” including the area’s community colleges and NC Works Center Durham, according to the public notice shared by Durham County in the agenda ahead of Monday’s meeting.

That agenda also noted that “approximately 90% of the jobs created by this project will be entry-level roles that can be hired with Durham Tech’s BioWork Certificate or high school education.”

And, statewide, Eli Lilly expects to create at least 1,000 new jobs, a spokesperson for the company told WRAL TechWire on Tuesday, adding that the company is hiring at both the Concord and Research Triangle Park facilities.

Eli Lilly is also a founding member of the NC Biotechnology Center’s Apprenticeship Consortium.