US drugmaker Eli Lilly has announced plans to invest $850 million in its US operations during 2017, including an $85 million expansion of its Trulicity (dulaglutide) device assembly operations. Lilly’s new CEO, David A. Ricks, said the money will fund projects that are already underway as well as new projects planned to be initiated throughout the course of the year as part of its long-standing commitment to the US market. The company is “on a path to launch 20 new products in a 10-year time frame," he added.

Specifically, the plans call for “massive investment” in diabetes products manufacturing. From 2012 to 2016, Lilly spent some $1.1 billion to boost this franchise, including upgrades to existing facilities and the addition of new capacity and capabilities. Investments in the recent past included upgrades to existing facilities as well as the addition of new capacity and capabilities and an expansion of its US manufacturing workforce by more than 1,000, the company said.

The manufacturing expansion, along with the introduction of several other new treatments over the last two and a half years, will allow Lilly to continue to be a leader in diabetes care, said Enrique Conterno, president, Lilly Diabetes and Lilly USA. He said spending is being driven by demand for the company’s products, as well as its “robust pipeline” of potential medicines in development targeting cancer, pain, diabetes and other unmet medical needs.

New CEO Ricks was among a number of pharmaceutical and biotech executives invited by US President Donald Trump to a White House meeting shortly after his inauguration in January, at which one of the topics was enhanced investment in US manufacturing. At the meeting, Ricks reportedly told Trump that Lilly was planning to hire additional manufacturing workers.

Ricks has been quoted as saying he is encouraged by the new president’s tax reform plans. At the Indianapolis presentation, which focused in major part on the inauguration of a $140 million insulin cartridge production facility, he said the equitable treatment of foreign earnings, a lower US corporate tax rate and US innovation incentives, “similar to the rest of the world,” will encourage significant investment in the country and create economic growth and good jobs for Americans. At the same time, he said, it will level the playing field with competitors around the world.