Blog | 5 min read
Lilly’s $5 billion investment is latest jewel in region’s pharma efforts
October 7, 2025
Pharmaceutical manufacturing giant Eli Lilly and Co. recently announced a $5 billion investment in the Richmond Region. Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said the new facility will be the company’s first dedicated, fully integrated, active pharmaceutical ingredient and drug product facility for cancer, autoimmune conditions and other advanced therapies.
Eli Lilly stated that the area was chosen due to the “workforce potential in the Greater Richmond Region, local incentives, ready access to utilities and transportation and favorable zoning.”
Ricks added that since the company began fielding interest since the company began fielding interest, it received more than 400 proposals from 46 states before choosing Virginia. The Goochland County facility is the first of four plants Eli Lilly plans to open domestically as part of their $50 billion commitment to reshore manufacturing.
“We chose Virginia because we have learned we have reliable partners here and great people who turn commitments into results,” Ricks said. “Virginia has infrastructure, transportation networks, utilities, a digital economy to support us, and all those things are just vital to a complex operation like the one we’re setting up here.”
Alliance for Building Better Medicine
However, the regional effort to reshore pharma manufacturing started earlier in the decade. In 2020, discussions with regional players – private sector companies, elected officials, economic development organizations and educational partners – to build a cluster around onshoring pharma manufacturing. It would help stabilize skyrocketing drug prices, improve quality and stabilize national security.
Hence, the Alliance for Building Better Medicine was formed. The organization’s mission is simple: to serve as the world’s central access point for advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing, where affordable, high-quality medicines are researched, accelerated and sustainably created stateside from start to finish.
As Ricks commented during Lilly’s announcement, “By expanding our domestic capacity, we’re building a secure, resilient supply chain that delivers for patients today and supports the breakthrough medicines of tomorrow.”
Much of this effort is contributed directly to Dr. Frank Gupton, a retired pharmaceutical executive, who came out of retirement to start the Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) at the VCU College of Engineering. The Institute was awarded $60 million over the years from the Gates Foundation to develop low-cost AIDS drugs. His vision for continuous pharma manufacturing (instead of expensive batch manufacturing) created Phlow. The company, a B-Corp., helps the U.S. government and pharma companies overcome drug development and manufacturing.
Existing business investment
A concerted effort to build upon Greater Richmond’s business community helped the pharma cluster by growing from within.
- In January, consumer health company Haleon announced a $54 million upgrade to its Richmond-based facility. The manufacturer also established a paid internship partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University to create a talent pipeline.
- In 2022, Thermo Fisher Scientific invested $97 million its Clinical Research Laboratories and created more than 500 jobs in the region. “We have a rich history in the Richmond and Henrico County region, a talent hub with respected universities, and an attractive place for our employees to live and work,” said David M. Johnston, Ph.D., senior vice president and president, clinical research, Thermo Fisher Scientific.
- Kaleo, the medical device company best known for its pocket-sized epinephrine pen, was awarded a $27.7 million contract by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to design an injector to counteract the effects of nerve agent poisoning. The company’s original co-founder, Eric Edwards, is business partners with Gupton in Phlow.
- Anton Paar, an Austrian-based measurement device manufacturer known globally for precision testing equipment, continues to grow its US headquarters in Ashland, Va. Anton Paar is active in more than 110 countries with 37 sales subsidiaries and more than 4,500 employees worldwide.
Early success
The support and vision of the Alliance has been extraordinary. Grants from GO Virginia, Build Back Better Regional Challenge, National Science Foundation Engines and the Good Jobs Challenge were earmarked to improve infrastructure, workforce development and cluster-building initiatives.
But the most distinguished award came in the form of the Richmond Region’s designation as a Regional Innovation and Technology Hub in October 2023, which was a milestone in establishing legitimacy for the cluster’s success. Awarded by the Biden Administration, the coveted Tech Hub designation is a strong endorsement of the Richmond-Petersburg region’s plan to supercharge a critical ecosystem and become a global leader in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (APM).
“The research at the Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University over the past decade was foundational to the building of an APM cluster in the Region, but without the strong partnerships we’ve developed through our work as an Alliance we would not have had the opportunity to change the landscape for medicine manufacturing for the nation and beyond,” said Frank Gupton, PhD, CEO, Medicines for All Institute.
Other companies were attracted to working along Phlow’s revolutionary processes:
- Civica, Utah-based nonprofit drugmaker, recently began construction on a 50,000-square-foot R&D lab in Chesterfield. The $25 million facility will also provide quality testing for Civica’s nearby pharma plant. The company is expected to soon grow to 350 local employees.
- In 2022, United States Pharmacopeia (USP), along with Phlow, opened testing labs to expedite the development of continuous manufacturing. USP’s role is to test the final products produced from this mode of Phlow’s manufacturing process.
Onshoring is the future
While Eli Lilly’s big splash in the Richmond Region is the latest for the advanced pharma industry, the ripple effects of a combined multi-jurisdictional level will be felt for decades. As the Research Triangle took decades to develop their life sciences industry to a nationally recognized destination, Greater Richmond seeks to do the same for pharmaceutical manufacturing. As the need for national safeguarding increases, so will the need of essential medicine production in our own backyard.
