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INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Lilly and Company invested $400 million to continue growing its insulin manufacturing operations in Indianapolis.

The company added two insulin cartridge filling lines and have plans to increase the amount of insulin they produce. The investment in our state is part of a bigger investment.

According to Enrique Conterno, Senior Vice President and President for Lilly Diabetes, the company has invested almost a billion dollars nationwide to this same effort.

The National Diabetes Education Program indicates more than 25 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Diabetes. They stated the disease impacts a little more than 8 percent of Americans. The organization also mentioned another statistic that about 7 million people have no clue they have Diabetes.

“We are expecting that we’re going to launch a number of new products in the next couple of years and manufacturing operations like what we’re seeing today,” Conterno said.

Eli Lilly and Company believes everything they are doing is helping to continue to make them competitive.

“We need to continue to be up to date and so we’re very excited. As important as our heritage is, our future is even brighter,” Conterno said.

Operations Director for the cartridge manufacturing facility, Peter Berzins said, millions and millions of cartridges will be shipped every year from two of their buildings to places across the US as well as other countries.

“Part of the reason that (Lilly is making) the investment and the new technology (we have) is going to continue to (make us competitive) in the insulin market as well as (help us) continue to produce high quality medicine,” Berzins said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states 1 in 3 people in the United States will have Diabetes by 2050, if we continue down the same path.

“At the end, we all want to address the epidemic of Diabetes. I’m pretty confident that Lilly will play an important role in doing that,” Conterno said.

Eli Lilly and Company expects to finish construction of the cartridge line facility by 2016. They anticipate hiring people for several of those manufacturing areas stated above.

“Not only is Eli Lilly a leader in the biomedical field, but they’re putting Americans back to work,” Representative Andre Carson with Indiana’s 7th District said.

“This is critically important because it’s another step in getting closer to breaking this,” U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana said.