Lilly invests US $400 million to upgrade the diabetes factory in the United States, adding 100 jobs

In response to criticism of rising insulin prices, Lilly launched Humalog's generic drug, which costs only half of Humalog's list price Recently, the diabetes giant announced that it would invest 400 million US dollars in its Indianapolis production base to meet the treatment needs of more diabetes patients and prepare for the production of more diabetes products It is reported that this investment will add robots and other new production technologies to the production base, and will bring 100 new jobs Myles O'Neill, President of Lilly manufacturing, said in a statement: "this investment will support the upgrading of manufacturing capacity in Indianapolis, including capacity and technology upgrading of businesses such as active ingredients, syringe filling, equipment assembly and packaging These projects will support Lilly's investment in the next generation of manufacturing, enabling us to have a high level of automation, artificial intelligence, new technologies and advanced data analysis capabilities " In addition to the enhancements, the upgrade of equipment and packaging assembly operations will include a high-tech warehouse that will use the latest technologies in warehousing, automated guided vehicles and robots, a lilly spokeswoman said in an email At this year's Senate hearing, Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk were questioned about rising insulin prices Among them, the price of Humalog is considered as a typical case of the regular price increase of diabetes drug companies, and the price increase of Humalog is considered to seriously affect the patients' access to treatment But Lilly doesn't think so The company blames the price rise of the drug on the difference made by middlemen, which is caused by the pharmacy system Lilly points out that although the list price of Humalog has increased by 52% in the past five years, its net price has actually decreased by 8% But Lilly finally made a change in order to calm down the incident In May, Lilly released Humalog's generic drug, lispo injection pen, which sold for $265.20 in five packages, 50% cheaper than Humalog Like other peers, Lilly also faces the problem of the payer's pressure on the price of diabetes drugs, which directly affects the revenue of diabetes products of major companies, and also forces enterprises to constantly adjust to adapt and cut costs In the first nine months of this year, limalog's revenue fell 8% compared with the same period last year Just last month, Eli Lilly announced that Enrique conterno, senior vice president of the company and head of global diabetes business, would resign at the end of the year According to external analysis, conterno's resignation may be caused by the instability and development of its leading diabetes business over the years, especially the increasing price pressure faced by Lilly's diabetes product line in recent years, and the fierce competition of new products challenged the sales volume of Lilly's product portfolio The replacement of conterno has also been confirmed Mike Mason, head of Lilly's insulin manufacturing department, will take office on January 1, 2020 Reference source: Lily putting $400m into U.S diabetes production, adding 100 jobs