Seven months after pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company made its entrance into southeast Wisconsin by acquiring a facility in Pleasant Prairie built by Nexus Pharmaceuticals, the company announced plans for a $3 billion expansion at the site. The expansion in Pleasant Prairie will allow Indianapolis-based Lilly to bolster its injectable product manufacturing as the
Seven months after pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company made its entrance into southeast Wisconsin by acquiring a facility in Pleasant Prairie built by Nexus Pharmaceuticals, the company announced plans for a $3 billion expansion at the site.
The expansion in Pleasant Prairie will allow Indianapolis-based Lilly to bolster its injectable product manufacturing as the company makes medicines to address health issues like obesity and diabetes.
The company expects to create 750 new jobs at the Pleasant Prairie site as part of the expansion. Approximately 100 employees already work at the approximately 100,000-square-foot facility, located at 10300 128th Ave. in the Prairie Highlands Corporate Park. Operators, technicians, engineers and scientists will be hired to run the expanded manufacturing facility.
The company plans to start construction on the expansion next year. Lilly estimates more than 2,000 construction jobs will be created during the expansion project’s construction.
“Today’s announcement represents our single largest U.S. manufacturing investment outside our home state of Indiana and will add to our ability to expand capacity to make both our existing and future pipeline of medicines right here in the Midwest,” said Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice president and president of Lilly Manufacturing Operations. “We look forward to bringing high-wage, advanced manufacturing, engineering and science jobs to people in Wisconsin, a state that is becoming a critical geography in our global manufacturing operations.”
Lilly declined to share how large the expansion project’s physical footprint will be, or what specific medicines it will be manufacturing at the Pleasant Prairie facility. The company did say that the expanded facility will focus on manufacturing injectable medicines, device assembly and packaging for medicines across multiple therapeutic areas.
Lilly said it will use advanced automation, including guided vehicles, robotics and production equipment, to accelerate medicine production at the facility. "From data management to operations, digital automation will be embedded throughout the site to accelerate processes and increase accuracy, allowing employees to focus on making safe, high-quality medicines," the company said in a news release.
Nexus Pharmaceuticals originally planned to build out its Pleasant Prairie manufacturing complex over the course of a decade. The company estimated it would make an overall investment of $250 million, with the first phase of the project including a $100 million sterile injectables plant. That 100,000-square-foot building, which Lilly acquired in April, originally opened in July 2021.
To acquire the facility, Lilly paid $924.7 million, net of cash acquired, for the assets of NexPharm Parent HoldCo LLC and Insopro Holdings LLC. Those two entities owned the assets of the Nexus Pharmaceutical facility in Pleasant Prairie.
The facility is located across the street from Uline's corporate headquarters in Pleasant Prairie and next to the site where Uline is building a new 366,000-square-foot office building that could house up to 1,300 employees.
[caption id="attachment_600011" align="alignleft" width="300"] 10121 136th Ave., Bristol[/caption]
Lilly has made additional moves this year to expand its footprint in Pleasant Prairie. The company recently purchased a 323,930-square-foot industrial building in the Village of Bristol for $40.8 million, near the former Nexus Pharmaceuticals building. The vacant warehouse is located at 10121 136th Ave. in the Bristol Business Park. Lilly also spent $10.2 million to buy 30.9 acres of vacant land located to the north and south of the Bristol building.
Altogether, the company has created a 52.5-acre site in Pleasant Prairie and Bristol.
With the acquisition of the Pleasant Prairie and Bristol buildings, the planned Pleasant Prairie expansion and the land purchases the company said its total planned investment in Wisconsin is $4 billion.
Shortage of medicine
Lilly is working to make it easier to access obesity medication across the globe. The company makes several medicines that address obesity and diabetes, including Trulicity and Mounjaro.
Trulicity is a type 2 diabetes medication for adults and children ages 10 and older and Mounjaro is an injectable medicine for adults with type 2 diabetes.
The company’s Zepbound injectable prescription medicine also addresses obesity and provided 47% greater weight loss compared to competitor Wegovy, according to a December announcement.
Demand for these kinds of medicines is at an all-time high, and some patients are experiencing longer than usual wait times when refilling their prescriptions, according to the Lilly website.
"We are modernizing and enhancing existing sites with the latest technology to increase our manufacturing capacity," according to a statement on the Lilly website. "We are also building new facilities at record speed, going from breaking ground to producing medicine in just two years—three years faster than average. Lilly has made historic investments to increase manufacturing and supply capacity around the world in record time, which has expedited our ability to better meet demand."
Lilly reported a third quarter revenue increase of 20% to $11.4 billion, driven by volume growth from both Mounjaro and Zepbound. The company generated more than $34 billion in revenue in 2023.
Since 2020, Lilly has committed more than $23 billion to construct, expand and
acquire manufacturing sites worldwide.
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