On May 9, 2025 Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Purdue University reported a significant expansion of their long-standing alliance, with Lilly’s planned investment of up to $250 million in the collaboration over the next eight years (Press release, Eli Lilly, MAY 9, 2025, View Source [SID1234652822]). This partnership, which has the potential to be the largest ever industry-academic agreement of its kind in the United States, will seek to accelerate innovation at every stage of the pharmaceutical pipeline.
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The Lilly-Purdue 360 Initiative aims to achieve several key goals, including discovering and accelerating the delivery of medicines to patients; bridging the gap between laboratory discoveries and clinical applications; creating more resilient, efficient and sustainable supply chains; and deploying innovative, scalable approaches to workforce development. The expanded collaboration is also expected to generate significant economic benefits for Indiana by creating a highly skilled workforce and fostering local innovation.
The earlier agreement, which had been set to expire in 2027, will now extend with four new projects added through 2032. Additionally, it will engage existing joint programs, such as Lilly Scholars at Purdue and the Lilly and Purdue Research Alliance Center (LPRC). Purdue will make space available for Lilly researchers on-site in West Lafayette. Purdue researchers will collaborate in Lilly facilities in Indianapolis and in Indiana’s LEAP Research and Innovation District.
"As potentially the largest single university-industry research agreement in American history, Lilly and Purdue are blazing a new trail to the endless frontier," said Purdue University President Mung Chiang. "As for our state, when its largest company and the largest university expand collaboration at a scale never seen before, especially in the backdrop of Lilly’s manufacturing facility in LEAP, today marks a monumental watershed in the generation of jobs, workforce, and innovation along America’s Hard-Tech Corridor. We thank Lilly for its pioneering impact on health and medicine in our society and for what is now the largest single research funding, from public or private capital, in Purdue’s history."
To achieve the initiative’s ambitious goals, Lilly and Purdue will concentrate on several key areas:
Applying AI-powered tools to augment traditional drug discovery methods while leveraging advancements in machine learning and big data analytics to explore disease mechanisms and personalized treatments
Facilitating technology-enabled approaches to accelerate potential treatments from Phase I clinical studies to regulatory approval and technology transfer into manufacturing — critical focus areas of the Lilly Medicine Foundry
Incorporating robotics, AI, and data sciences to quickly scale manufacturing capacity more effectively, with improved compliance and greater sustainability
Enhancing workforce development to ensure a strong talent pipeline to meet the demands of Lilly and other Indiana employers
"Accelerating the delivery of life-changing medicines demands a highly skilled workforce and continuous innovation across discovery, process development and manufacturing," said David A. Ricks, Lilly’s chair and CEO. "Through this expanded collaboration with Purdue, we look forward to combining our strengths in advanced technologies and cutting-edge science to pioneer new methods of delivering next-generation medicines to advance human health."
The Lilly-Purdue 360 Initiative supports Purdue’s One Health initiative, which advances knowledge and innovation related to animal, human, and plant well-being through novel interdisciplinary initiatives and partnerships with industry.