10-05-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
Eli Lilly, Purdue create $250 million partnership for pharma research as federal cuts hit labs
Eli Lilly and Purdue University are changing how groundbreaking research can be funded as universities and labs across the country grapple with sudden federal funding cuts to vital research.
Lilly CEO Dave Ricks and Purdue University President Mung Chiang on May 9 announced a $250 million collaboration to build up pharmaceutical technology in what the two Indiana leaders believe is the largest industry-academic partnership in the country.
"It will be focused on accelerating innovation at every stage of the work we do," Ricks said. "And then also on talent, training the workforce of the future to work at Lilly and other advanced pharmaceutical companies."
Over the next eight years, Lilly and Purdue will use the investment to speed up several areas of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, including using AI-powered tools to augment traditional drug discovery methods; incorporating robotics to scale manufacturing capacity; and facilitating the drug pipeline at the future Lilly Medicine Foundry in Lebanon.
An existing partnership was set to expire in 2027, but this program, named the Lilly-Purdue 360 initiative, will expand the collaboration and keep it running until at least 2032.
The announcement comes as universities are grappling with how to respond to a sudden loss of money from the federal government. Some universities are laying off employees or dipping into endowment funds to keep labs afloat.
Chiang said industry partnerships can be used to cover gaps in federal funding, but he cautioned against universities relying exclusively on industry support. He believes Purdue "can win" with a steady combination of industry and federal funding well into the future.
"With today's announcement, Lilly and Purdue is taking a leadership position across the entire country with the largest such agreement in scale and perhaps in scope, too, to demonstrate what we can do together," Chiang said. "Now this may not be the only part of the future of research, but it certainly is an increasingly important part and we are proud of a nationally leading agreement today."
As part of the agreement, Purdue will make space available for Lilly researchers to work on site at the West Lafayette campus while Purdue researchers will collaborate at Lilly sites in Indianapolis and at the LEAP District along I-65 in Boone County.
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The Lilly-Purdue partnership will strengthen the university's Lilly Scholars program, which provides full-ride scholarships and paid internships to Purdue undergraduates in STEM. The scholars program is one way Lilly hopes to keep talent in Indiana after they graduate college.
Meanwhile, Lilly is continuing to increase how much medicine is manufactured in the United States, a move that could require additional employees. The pharmaceutical giant broke ground on its Medicine Foundry at the LEAP District in Lebanon earlier in the week, a first of its kind facility where clinical trials will be conducted and medicine manufactured.
Earlier this year, Lilly announced a $27 billion investment to build four new American manufacturing facilities. Upon completion, Lilly will be able to supply medicine in the U.S. completely from U.S. facilities, Ricks previously said.
Jason Thiagarajan, a Purdue sophomore from Bloomington in the Lilly Scholars program, said he hopes the investment will increase mentorship in the program and keep more young professionals like him in the state well into their careers.
"I've never been more proud to be born and raised in Indiana," Thiagarajan said.
