The multinational pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly triples its commitment in Sesto Fiorentino, where it has been present for over fifty years and where, in 2009, it specialized its new factory in the production of biotechnological insulin cartridges, and other administration methods. The American group recently inaugurated a second production line of biotech insulin, and simultaneously announced a project for build a third line shortly, which will be operational in 2015, which will soon be flanked by other lines for the production of administration devices for other diabetes medications.

The pharmaceutical giant’s goal is to bring the plant to full speed by 2015, producing 230 million insulin cartridges per year, as well as 45 million insulin pens and 16.5 million devices for new anti-diabetes therapies. The launch of the Sesto Fiorentino factory five years ago had cost 330 million, for a planned production of 140 million cartridges packaged in pre-filled and refillable pens. These figures provide a clear picture of the evolution of the American group’s commitment in Tuscany.

A brief by Eli Lilly Italia notes that it plans to turn Sesto Fiorentino into a “global reference point for the production of new biotechnological medicines” currently under development, also in other countries where Lilly and Company operates. “It is not only the creation of a state of the art factory – declared Eric Baclet, who since fall 2013 is president and general manager of the Italian branch, at the inauguration. The investment turned into development: economic, of the human capital, and of the territory. In terms of employment, it is estimated that the productive site in Sesto Fiorentino will employee 550 people by the end of the year, and as many as 700 by 2017. Including the employees and spin off activities, the American group’s impact on the territory – based on an investigation carried out by IRPET, the Regional Institute for Economic and Territorial Programming – is of nearly 5,500 jobs.

The Eli Lilly group has a turnover of 22 billion dollars and, in 2012, it generated 634 million in profits in Italy, providing more than one thousands jobs. 


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