Eli Lilly will take a 20% share in a new joint venture with the Queensland government in Australia to develop research in bio-pharmaceuticals. The venture capital fund is worth USD$250 million of which the Queensland government will contribute US$25 million. Eli Lilly will invest USD$50 million. Other partners cannot be named under US law.
The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, travelled to Chicago for BIO2010 to secure the deal with senior executives from Eli Lilly. She said:
“By keeping the innovation in Queensland, our scientists and researchers will be able to secure even more of the USD$5 trillion intellectual property rights market in the US.
We have a plan to make Queensland’s biotechnology industry worth $20 billion and employ 16,000 people by 2025 – and today’s announcement is a giant step forward.
This fund, which will have its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Brisbane, makes Queensland a key biotechnology hub in the Asia Pacific region. It will be run out of Brisbane but will also invest throughout Queensland, Australia and SE Asia.”
Eli Lilly and Company is a global, biopharmaceutical company based in Indiana, USA. With approximately 39,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues of more than $20 billion, Lilly works to discover and develop innovative medicines in areas such as cancer, depression, diabetes, cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases.