Lilly to invest in Italian insulin production

US drug major Eli Lilly will invest about 250.0 million euros ($368.0 million) in 2008 to set up a major insulin production site in Italy. The complex will be created by converting an existing antibiotics plant located at Sesto Fiorentino in Tuscany. The resurgence of diabetes has prompted the firm to add to its existing European production which has so far come from its Fegersheim near Strasbourg, France, plant. Current workers at Sesto Fiorentino will be retrained and an extra 250 taken on. Lorenzo Tallarigo, the company's president of international operations, said the aim is to secure production.

Mr Tallarigo said Lilly's 2007 sales were expected to rise 13% following a positive end to the year. A number of new drugs were doing well and growth is also forecast from the diabetes drug Byetta (exenatide) which has marketing approval in the USA, the UK and Germany and which will be launched in France in first-half 2008. He added that, from 2009, Lilly intends to introduce two drugs a year, rising to three a year from 2014.