Eli Lilly ($LLY) has displaced hundreds of sales jobs and frozen salaries in the face of the patent loss of its blockbuster Cymbalta, but its manufacturing workforce has gone relatively unscathed. It now says about 100 jobs will be lost in its dry products operations as it rejiggers tablet and capsule production over the next several years, but that employees will have the chance to move to other positions, like in its growing insulin operations.
The company told the Indianapolis Star that production of its antidepressant Prozac and blood thinner Effient will be moved to facilities in Puerto Rico and Spain. "Lilly is pursuing a plan to rebalance drug-product manufacturing activities for several solid-oral-dosage products between its production sites in Indianapolis, Spain, and Puerto Rico," Lilly spokesman Andrew McLaughlin confirmed in an email Monday. "Employees affected by this plan will have opportunities to move elsewhere within manufacturing, such as our growing insulin and biotechnology areas."
He pointed out that the company has announced nearly $500 million in "insulin-related investments in Indianapolis" for both active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and drug product manufacturing capacity. That includes adding about 164,000 square feet of space to a new Indianapolis facility where it will make insulin and fill cartridges for pens as well as expanding capacity at a nearby API plant.
The company also said in November that it would spend about $700 million to add API capacity in Indianapolis and in Puerto Rico and insulin-cartridge production in France and China. Lilly has been short on details and has never put any job numbers on any of these expansion announcements. A spokeswoman previously said the projects would happen over the next several years and that the company had not determined how many workers would be needed.
- read the Indianapolis Star story
Special Report: The top 10 largest pharma layoffs in 2013 - Eli Lilly