(This story was updated to add new information.)Eli Lilly and Co. is investing an additional $4.5 billion into the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon, bringing the drug company’s total investment in the area to more than $13 billion, company officials and Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday morning.
This latest $4.5 billion investment will create the Lilly Medicine Foundry, which will employ about 400 full-time employees including research scientists, engineers and lab technicians who will produce medications and scale manufacturing of medicine for clinical trials.
The manufacturing facility will combine research and manufacturing in one site by 2027, in what Lilly says is the first known facility of its kind in the world. Employees at the medicine foundry will work on drugs such as pills, injections and genetic medicines, such as gene therapy.
“When we see breaking science from a molecule that looks like it’s going to turn into a game changer for patients, we want to be able to be all in on creating the medicine for the clinical trials as quickly as possible,” said Dan Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer.
Lilly’s rapid growth in recent years led executives to pursue the new Lebanon development to keep up with its growing pipeline of medicine. In late 2020, Lilly identified two drug treatments for COVID-19 at its labs just south of downtown Indianapolis, less than eight months after the pandemic spread around the globe. And in 2022, Lilly brought the drug Mounjaro to market, first for diabetes and later approved for weight loss treatment.
LEAP District investment reaches $18 billion
Wednesday’s announcement marked the third expansion of Lilly’s presence in the growing LEAP District, a planned tech and manufacturing hub spanning thousands of acres in Boone County along the I-65 tech corridor.
The initial investment in 2022 earmarked $2.1 billion for two new manufacturing sites. The company pledged an additional $1.6 billion for the manufacturing facilities a year later. Five months ago, Lilly committed $5.3 billion to add a site for manufacturing ingredients used in diabetes and obesity medicines, such as Zepbound and Mounjaro.
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The combined projects will bring an estimated 1,300 jobs to the area along with roughly 5,000 construction jobs. Initially, Lilly estimated the investment would bring 500 full-time jobs. Of Lilly’s roughly 12,000 employees, 30% are in Indiana.
Lilly CEO David Ricks said the company would continue to pull from Indiana’s universities and workforce pipeline, but also draw from outside sources to find highly skilled employees.
“I think we have a great track record of hiring Hoosiers to Lilly, and we plan to continue that here, but that said, we want the very best in the world and the skills that will be required to run this new site as a world competitive site, so we’ll look far and wide as well,” Ricks said.
Another as of yet unnamed tenant has committed to join the LEAP district and will bring the total private investment at the site to $18 billion, said Indiana’s Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg.
With the expansion of the Lilly project, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation said it would contribute an additional $456 million in tax incentives based on Lilly’s promise to hire 239 Hoosiers by 2030.
In May, the drug company’s total incentive package reached more than $1.25 billion, including an additional $20 million in redevelopment tax credits, another $500,000 in training grants and another $15 million in road improvement funding. Due to the May expansion, Lilly can collect an estimated $1.2 billion worth of tax rebates over 30 years, instead of the initial $271.5 million, thanks to its designation by the IEDC as an Innovation Development District.
Water concerns still hang over massive site
Despite the large amounts of investment and construction at the site, controversy has stalled development in the area. Boone County residents previously told IndyStar they worried the industrial development would harm their farmland and drain natural resources in the area. A lawsuit filed by county residents challenging the annexation of land for the district was eventually dismissed by a judge.
Meanwhile 40 miles to the north, Tippecanoe County residents grew upset after learning of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s plans to pump tens of millions of gallons a day from the nearby Wabash River aquifer and pipe it to the LEAP District in Lebanon. A report released in 2023 by a consumer advocacy group said the plan threatened the state’s water supply and the wallets of Hoosiers.
The Citizens Action Coalition filed comments to Citizens Energy Group opposing an agreement between Lebanon and Citizens Water for the utility company to provide up to 25 million gallons of water per day to Lebanon Utilities through up to $700 million in loans from the Indiana Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
The coalition argued that money would be diverted from other projects aimed at improving water quality. However, the Indiana Finance Authority, who manages the drinking water fund, said in an emailed statement to IndyStar that the loans fall under requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The SRF is not a fund appropriated through the state legislature. Rather, the SRF program is supported by annual EPA capitalized grants. The IFA leverages these grants to provide low-interest loans to Indiana utilities for drinking and waste-water infrastructure projects,” IFA officials said.
Current Lebanon Citizens customers will not be responsible for the repayment of the loans, IFA officials said.
Still, the state and Lilly continue to press ahead. In August, the Indiana State Budget Committee approved more than $100 million for a water pipeline, land and infrastructure for the project.
The Indiana Finance Authority will release a regional water study in December to understand the water demands and availability in north central Indiana.
On Wednesday, Holcomb told reporters that there was enough water for all current development at the site, and water would only be pulled from other areas if water-heavy industries commit to the campus.
“When we rolled this out initially, we had some possibilities that would consume much larger quantities of water. We have said we will not move on that unless we have proven the water inventory available for such a big project. None to date has approached that need,” Holcomb said.
IndyStar reporter Karl Schneider contributed to this report.
Alysa Guffey covers growth and development for IndyStar. Have a business tip or story? Contact her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Eli Lilly invests another $4.5 billion for LEAP District in Lebanon
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