Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers joined Eli Lilly and Company officials to announce a $3 billion expansion of the Kenosha County manufacturing facility that the company acquired earlier this year. According to Lilly, this investment will extend the company’s global parenteral (injectable) product manufacturing network, helping to meet the growing demand for its diabetes, obesity, and future pipeline medicines across therapeutic areas. Lilly expects to add 750 highly skilled jobs to the current 130-plus workforce at this location in Southeastern Wisconsin.
“Southeastern Wisconsin has seen tremendous growth over the past year with major companies announcing significant expansions, and we are thrilled to add Lilly to that growing list with their $3 billion expansion that will add 750 highly-skilled, family-supporting jobs to Kenosha County,” said Gov. Evers. “As a U.S. Regional Tech Hub, Wisconsin is a national leader in personalized medicine and biohealth, and through this partnership with Lilly, we’re going to keep advancing research and innovation and bolstering Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry, all while supporting workers, families, and patients across the state and the world.”
“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 Executive Vice President and President of Lilly Manufacturing Operations Edgardo Hernandez. “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.”
“Wisconsin’s status as a Regional Tech Hub in biohealth makes it a perfect fit for an innovative, blue-chip company like Eli Lilly,” said Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes, the state’s leading economic development organization. “WEDC worked closely with Eli Lilly to meet its site selection and workforce needs, and we look forward to partnering with them to ensure their success in our state.”
The company plans to start construction on the expansion next year, creating an expected 2,000 construction jobs. This represents another step in Lilly’s historic manufacturing expansion agenda to help more people who depend on its medicines. Since 2020, Lilly has committed more than $23 billion to construct, expand, and acquire manufacturing sites worldwide.
This announcement comes as, in 2019, Gov. Evers joined the owners of Nexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. and local leaders to announce that Nexus selected Pleasant Prairie as the location for its first sterile drug manufacturing facility. WEDC provided $1.5 million in performance-based tax credits to assist Nexus in building the $100 million, 84,000-square-foot facility in Kenosha County to manufacture sterile, injectable drugs—the first such facility built in the nation in more than 30 years. In 2021, Gov. Evers joined Nexus for the ribbon-cutting of the facility, and earlier this year, Lilly announced it was acquiring the manufacturing facility from Nexus. According to Lilly, the acquisition, expansion, and additional purchases of land and the adjacent warehouse in Pleasant Prairie bring Lilly’s total planned investment in Wisconsin to $4 billion. The expanded facility will focus on manufacturing injectable medicines, device assembly, and packaging for medicines across multiple therapeutic areas.
Lilly will use advanced automation, including guided vehicles, robotics, and production equipment, to accelerate medicine production. 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. Lilly also aims to advance innovation in pharmaceutical manufacturing by fostering partnerships with local higher education institutions and supporting various community initiatives in Southeastern Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is a national leader in the biohealth technology sector, and today’s announcement comes as earlier this year, Wisconsin was selected as a U.S. Regional Tech Hub by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, unlocking $49 million to grow the state’s personalized medicine and biohealth sector, including advancing research and innovation, growing the state’s economy and creating jobs, and boosting American competitiveness in a cutting-edge industry. The coveted designation, made possible by years of advocacy from Gov. Evers and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), will allow Wisconsin’s consortium of 18 public and private partners organized by the Evers Administration through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to boost research and expand lab space, increase coordination and collaboration, improve access to capital to start and grow businesses, and further build out the personalized medicine and biohealth technology sector. Over the first 10 years, the Tech Hub designation is projected to create more than 30,000 jobs in the personalized medicine sector and over 111,000 indirect jobs attributable to the Tech Hub in Wisconsin. Additionally, the Tech Hub is projected to create $9 billion worth of economic development in Wisconsin within the first decade.
Additionally, this year, Southeastern Wisconsin has seen outstanding investments from major global companies. In June, Gov. Evers joined officials from the Kikkoman Corporation for a groundbreaking ceremony for Kikkoman Foods Inc.’s new state-of-the-art manufacturing and production facility in Jefferson. Kikkoman is investing more than $560 million to build this new facility in Jefferson, and together with an additional nearly $250 million expansion effort at the company’s existing facility in Walworth, the projects are expected to create at least 83 new high-paying jobs in Wisconsin over the next 12 years.
Further, in May, Gov. Evers welcomed President Joe Biden to Wisconsin to join Microsoft officials in celebrating the company’s investment of $3.3 billion to expand its national cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure capacity through the development of a state-of-the-art datacenter campus in Mount Pleasant and an AI Co-Innovation Lab on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the first of its kind in the United States. The project is expected to bring 2,000 union construction jobs to the area by the end of this year, as well as provide long-term employment opportunities over the next several years.
Finally, in April, Gov. Evers announced that Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, which feeds more than 46 million dogs and 68 million cats every year, is expanding its production facility in Jefferson—a $195 million project that will increase production of wet pet food brands in Jefferson by nearly 50 percent and is expected to bring an additional 100 jobs to the community it has called home since 1910.