February 14, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Lilly has quelling rumors that a planned expansion in Ireland is on hold.
Over the past few days several media outlets in Ireland have reported the company was placing an alleged $212 million investment in upgrades to its Kinsale facility in Cork County, Ireland on hold. The company allegedly put the plan on hold after President Donald Trump began developing plans to reform the pharmaceutical industry and spur investment in the United States. Some of the wait was surrounding possible changes to U.S. Tax laws that would benefit investments at home.
However, this morning a representative of Eli Lilly told Biopharma Reporterthat the rumors are just that, and that Eli Lilly had never made a final decision regarding the proposed upgrades at its Kinsale site. Lilly spokesperson Louisa Stevenson said the Irish media misinterpreted a statement the company sent last week. The company said on Friday that it had not made a final decision to proceed with the investment at this time and was waiting a decision by the company’s global board. Stevenson also questioned reports of how much the company was planning to invest in the Kinsale site. She said Eli Lilly would never disclose how much money the company planned to invest in a project before a final decision to invest was made, Biopharma Reporter said.
Eli Lilly’s Kinsale plant went into operation in 1981. Since then, the company has invested more than $2 billion into its operations. The company has made “heavy investment” into the site over the past few years to support Eli Lilly’s biopharmaceutical pipeline, Stevenson said, according to Biopharma Reporter. That heavy investing includes the $37 million Eli Lilly announced it would invest in the Kinsale plant to establish a new high-tech manufacturing facility in April 2016.
Lilly is adjusting to proposed investments in its research and programs that could include additional hiring in the U.S. A spokesperson told Endpoints earlier this month it planned to increase investment in its molecule-making capabilities, immunology and Alzheimer’s disease research programs. However, the company is in the middle of a round of layoffs associated with Eli Lilly’s failed Alzheimer’s therapy solanezumab.
During a meeting with Trump and other pharma leaders, new Eli Lilly Chief Executive Office David Ricks told the president the company was looking to hire additional staff for drug manufacturing, a key area of economic development the new administration is pushing. Earlier this year, Ricks announced the company is expecting long-term growth of approximately 5 percent per year until the end of the decade.
