Hyderabad: Telangana has secured a massive investment of $ one billion by US pharma major Eli Lilly towards expanding its manufacturing and global medicine supply capacity in Hyderabad.

The expansion will be facilitated by way of new contract manufacturing, which will result in the creation of myriad jobs for Telangana youth.

The announcement was made after the company's global delegation met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu at the Integrated Command Control Centre here on Monday.

This development reaffirms the company's trust in Telangana's leadership and its effective governance, since the inauguration of its global capability centre in Hyderabad in August. Despite expressions of interest from several states, Eli Lilly chose Telangana owing to the favourable ecosystem in terms of availability of highly skilled manpower, infrastructure and assured support from the government.

The investment marks the company's interest in Telangana beyond GCCs and addressing new medicines to treat diabetes and obesity, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and autoimmune conditions.

The company will begin recruitment immediately, with openings across roles such as engineers, chemists, analytical scientists, quality control and assurance professionals, and management positions. After putting in place new facilities, the company will go in for contract manufacturing in Telangana, and supply globally.

The Chief Minister thanked the Eli Lilly delegation for having chosen Telangana and assured them of full support from the government for all their future plans. He attributed the transformation of Hyderabad as a pharma hub to IDPL that was established in the city way back in 1965. "Indira Gandhi's initiative in 1965 is the reason why Hyderabad stands as a hub of bulk drug manufacturing. Hyderabad was also at the epicentre of the Covid vaccine manufacturing for the global stage."