US drug giant Eli Lilly has announced plans to invest €400 million in a major new manufacturing plant that will employ 300 people in Limerick when it comes into operation.
The company is currently in talks about planning for the IDA Ireland site. It hopes to start construction later this year with a targeted date of late 2025/early 2026 to start operations.
The company’s head of manufacturing, Edgardo Hernandez said it would begin hiring immediately.
Asked about issues with planning, and security of power and water supplies that had been cited as concerns following the decision of US tech giant, Intel, to site a plant in Germany ahead of Ireland, Mr Hernandez said the company had done a global assessment of locations before settling on Limerick.
Eli Lilly already has a significant presence in Ireland with a manufacturing plant in Kinsale, Co Cork, where it has had a plant for 40 years, and a commercial centre in Little Island, also in Cork.
It also has contract manufacturing operations in the State.
“Over the past 40 years, we have continued to invest in Ireland in part because of supportive government policies that value life science innovation,” said Mr Hernandez. “This new Lilly campus in Limerick will allow us to expand our capacity to make innovative new medicines that can help treat some of the world’s most serious illnesses.”
Eli Lilly is currently developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s for which it has great expectations. The company has fully enrolled a phase III trial for the drug, Donanemab, to assess its effectiveness in preventing progression of the disease.
Results of that trial will be available next year and will feed into ongoing negotiations the company is having with US regulators on approval for the medicine.
“Lilly produces crucial healthcare products which are making a huge difference to the lives of patients around the world fighting some of the world’s most serious illnesses,” said Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar. “This new manufacturing centre is a significant expansion of that work and I wish the entire team the very best with the project.”
IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan said the investment was “very welcome news for the midwest region and indeed Ireland”.
He said the decision to significantly expand its footprint into the midwest demonstrated the confidence Lilly had in Ireland “and the region’s strong talent pool”.
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