Drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. intends to build a $5 billion manufacturing site in Goochland County, the company announced Tuesday, a potential big boost to the region’s budding pharmaceutical industry.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch first reported last month that state lawmakers approved economic development packages for Eli Lilly to build a plant in Goochland and for AstraZeneca to construct one in Albemarle County.
Since the pandemic, local leaders have hoped greater Richmond – and other corners of the state – can become a destination for drug building. Eli Lilly’s announcement is an answer to their prayers.
“Our investment in Virginia underscores our commitment to U.S. innovation and manufacturing – creating high-quality jobs, strengthening communities and advancing the health and well-being of Americans nationwide,” David A. Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, said in a statement.
Lilly will take up to five years to build the facility. Construction will create 1,800 short-term jobs, and once it’s finished, an additional 650 permanent jobs for engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians.
The company will build in the West Creek Business Park, but it has not announced a specific property. Lilly selected Goochland from hundreds of applications based on workforce potential, local incentives, access to utilities, transportation and favorable zoning, it said. It is not clear yet what incentives Lilly has received. Goochland already has two Fortune 500 companies headquartered within its borders, CarMax and Performance Food Group.
The Lilly facility will develop active pharmaceutical ingredients for drugs to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and other ailments. The Goochland plant will focus on building a type of medicine called antibody-drug conjugates, a cancer-fighting treatment that delivers medicine directly to diseased cells, which is designed to maximize effectiveness while reducing harm to healthy tissue.
“This isn’t just another manufacturing site – it represents a significant milestone for Lilly, as we being building our first bioconjugate facility,” said Edgardo Hernandez, president of Lilly Manufacturing Operations.
This Goochland site is the first of four new U.S. manufacturing plants Lilly plans to announce this year.
Years before President Donald Trump put an emphasis on bringing manufacturing back to U.S. soil, American leaders saw a need to build medicines within U.S borders. Many drug ingredients come from China, and the pandemic exposed how Americans might struggle to obtain important medicines in the event of a supply-chain issue or a geopolitical conflict.
A Richmond-based company, Phlow Corp., won a federal contract to build a stockpile of ingredients, and its Petersburg facility builds ingredients for drugs considered especially vulnerable or in short supply.
One of Phlow’s cofounders, Dr. Frank Gupton, also heads up the Virginia Commonwealth University Medicines for All Institute, which redesigns medicines with cheaper building blocks. The region gained another pharmaceutical player when Civica Inc., a nonprofit drug maker, built a plant in Petersburg.
Lilly, headquartered in Indianapolis, is one of the world’s largest medicine makers. It manufactures Mounjaro, which became hugely popular for its ability to aid weight loss, and Trulicity, a similar drug for treating diabetes.
This story will be updated.