BUSINESS

Eli Lilly to expand drug delivery research unit, but not in Indy

Jeff Swiatek
jeff.swiatek@indystar.com
Eli Lilly and Co. will move its device research unit into this Cambridge, Mass., building later in 2015.

Eli Lilly and Co. will expand its Indianapolis-based drug delivery and device innovation center — in Cambridge, Mass.

Putting the new center in Cambridge is an attempt to tap the talent that exists in the Boston area for scientists and bioengineers who work with drug-delivery devices, such as insulin needles and pens, Lilly said.

About 30 scientists and bioengineers will be hired to staff the new center over the next two years. It will open the end of this year.

Lilly didn't say how much it's spending to open the center. It will be located in leased space in an existing building in Kendall Square, a 10-acre planned development with offices, apartments, restaurants and retail space, along the Charles River. The development has become a hub for biotech and life science companies.

Lilly is developing more biologic drugs, which require needles or other drug-delivery devices to administer to patients. That has prompted Lilly to beef up its delivery device unit, which now employs about 110 people in Indianapolis.

Lilly wants to be "an industry leader in providing convenient, reliable drug delivery and device innovation," Lilly Chairman and CEO John Lechleiter said. "Locating in Cambridge is an important strategic move for achieving this goal, as it provides us access to a concentration of high-caliber academic institutions, cutting-edge life science and technology companies, and some of the world's leading talent."

Jan Lundberg, executive vice president of science and technology and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, called the development of drug delivery devices "critically important to Lilly's growing portfolio of potential medicines, particularly in our focus areas of diabetes, neurodegeneration, immunology and pain. The best therapies of the future will marry breakthrough scientific discovery with customer-friendly devices."

More than half of Lilly's pipeline of drugs in development comprises biologics that require some type of injection. The company expects its revenues from device-enabled products to double by 2020.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.