Eli Lilly and Company Opens Eco-Friendly Biotechnology Center on the West Coast Designed to Speed and Enhance Innovation

Eli Lilly and Company Opens Eco-Friendly Biotechnology Center on the West
Coast Designed to Speed and Enhance Innovation
Lilly Has Biotech Discovery Research and Development Centers on Both Coasts
and in the Midwest

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its strategy to
discover and develop more biotechnology medicines, Eli Lilly and Company today
officially opened a new state-of-the-art biotechnology center on the West
Coast. The facility, known as the "Lilly Biotechnology Center - San Diego," is
opening three months after Lilly announced it is moving its ImClone research
headquarters (which specializes in developing cancer biologics) into a new
biopharmaceutical research cluster in New York, and just one year after Lilly
completed construction of its biotechnology research and development complex
at company headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"We are moving full speed ahead toward building a biotechnology powerhouse,"
said John Lechleiter, Ph.D., Lilly chairman and chief executive officer. "The
science, technology and talent at our new center in San Diego will help bring
novel biotech medicines to patients faster and more efficiently, and
reinforces Lilly's commitment and contributions to San Diego's burgeoning
bioscience industry."

Lilly's latest biotechnology center is located within an extensive hub of life
science activity near the University of California, San Diego and other
prominent biomedical research institutes, which is consistent with Lilly's
FIPNet strategy to leverage external resources and knowledge to advance its
pipeline.

Of the nearly 200 scientists based at the center, more than half are from
Applied Molecular Evolution (AME), a wholly-owned Lilly subsidiary that
discovers, engineers and develops biotechnology-based therapies built
specifically from human proteins. Additionally, the center is the work base
for scientists from discovery chemistry research and technology (DCRT), a
division within Lilly that includes scientists from what was previously known
as SGX Pharmaceuticals. (Lilly acquired SGX in 2008 and incorporated it into
DCRT.)

Lilly's West Coast Biotechnology Center Enhances Company's Focus on Innovation

"The results of Lilly's transformation into a biopharmaceutical powerhouse are
quite evident and very exciting, with over 50 percent of our mid to late-stage
pipeline now consisting of biologics-potential medicines for a range of
diseases, including diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, musculoskeletal
disorders and Alzheimer's disease," said Steve Paul, M.D., executive vice
president, science and technology, and president, Lilly Research Laboratories.

AME, in collaboration with Indianapolis-based biotechnology research efforts,
has made important contributions to building Lilly's biotechnology portfolio.
Specifically, AME has helped develop eight of the approximately 60 molecules
in Lilly's current clinical pipeline. Additionally, it has helped design and
engineer four molecules that are currently in pre-clinical development.

At the new San Diego biotechnology facility, the scientists from AME and
DCRT-San Diego are drawing on each other's expertise to further speed and
enhance innovation. For example, DCRT-San Diego group is a world leader in
pioneering strategies that use protein-crystal structures to aid in the design
of new molecular entities. This technically complex effort requires expertise
in small molecules and structural biology, which is being applied, through
collaboration with AME, to the discovery and development of innovative
biologic therapies (large molecules).

"We are optimizing the synergies between AME and DCRT-San Diego by co-locating
them," said Tom Bumol, Ph.D., vice president of biotechnology discovery
research at Lilly and head of the new West Coast site. "We in the scientific
community have only scratched the surface of what is possible for biologic
drug design, and collaborations such as this taking place at our new center
will help lead to the next generation of biotechnology-based treatments for
patients."

Work at the new biotechnology center is mostly focused on discovering,
engineering and conducting Phase I and II clinical trials on potential
biologic medicines, with an emphasis on cancer, diabetes and autoimmune
diseases, areas of medicine that hold potential promise for biologic drug
development.

Autoimmune diseases are diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's
own tissues; examples include rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and multiple
sclerosis. Recently, Lilly established a new therapeutic platform dedicated
specifically to discovering and developing potential new therapies for
autoimmune diseases. Of the five molecules that Lilly currently has in its in
clinical pipeline for autoimmune diseases, three are humanized antibodies that
were designed and engineered by scientists now based at the Lilly
Biotechnology Center -San Diego: IL-23 antibody (LY2525623), slated to enter
Phase II development for psoriasis within the next few months; IL-1b antibody
(LY2189102), for which, in Q3 of this year, a Phase II trial was begun for
type 2 diabetes; and IL-17 antibody (LY2439821), in Phase II development for
rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

"We want to continue this positive innovation trend in autoimmunity, cancer,
diabetes, as well as other diseases for which there is an unmet need," said
Bumol. "In doing so, we are leveraging our deep therapeutic expertise, as well
as our small molecule and biotech capabilities."

An Environmentally-Friendly Building
The Lilly Biotechnology Center is located within a 450,000-foot facility known
as Campus Pointe, which was developed, and is owned and managed, by
Veralliance Properties of San Diego. Veralliance has partnered with Prudential
Real Estate Investors on the development. Lilly is leasing approximately a
quarter of Campus Pointe from Veralliance.

Campus Pointe is in the final stages of review to become California's first
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified Core and Shell
facility at the Platinum level. The Platinum certification, if granted, would
mean that the building has met the highest level of criteria set by the U.S.
Green Building Council for environmental responsibility through site
sustainability, water efficiency, energy usage and indoor environmental
quality, and material utilization.

"There are currently 11 LEED-certified Core and Shell Platinum projects
worldwide, but none in California," said Tom Lunneberg, principal of
Innovative Energy Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in energy
efficiency for commercial buildings and headquartered in Carlsbad, California.
"Campus Pointe could become the first Platinum Core and Shell project in
California, and would be one of only eight in the United States."

Environmentally-responsible features of Campus Pointe include:
-- Renewable energy production through use of solar array.
-- Optimal indoor air quality through enhanced HVAC commissioning and
carbon dioxide monitoring
-- Water-saving features, including low-flow fixtures, reclaimed water
for
both landscaping and the building's cooling system, and
drought-tolerant
landscaping
-- Renovation of an existing building (vs. building a new one) and use of
recycled materials in the process. Also, many of the site's existing
trees were preserved in the re-development.

-- Certified, renewable wood products throughout.

In addition, Campus Pointe has parking for hybrid vehicles and is immediately
accessible to public transportation.

"Campus Pointe was conceived as an opportunity to set a new development
standard for life science and office projects by providing a highly amenitized
space while sparingly drawing on our planet's natural resources," said Daniel
Ryan, president of Veralliance.

About Lilly
Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing
portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its
own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific
organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers -
through medicines and information - for some of the world's most urgent
medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at
www.lilly.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements about several
investigational compounds for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and
reflects Lilly's current beliefs. However, as with any pharmaceutical product
under development, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the
process of development and regulatory review. There is no guarantee that
these compounds will receive regulatory approval, or that the regulatory
approval will be for the indications anticipated by the company. There is
also no guarantee that these compounds will prove to be commercially
successful. For further discussion of these and other risks and
uncertainties, see Lilly's filings with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission. Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking
statements.

C-LLY

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(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091029/DE01517 )

SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company

Judy Kay Moore, +1-317-277-6265 (office); +1-317-440-1230 (cell), or Christine
Van Marter, +1-317-651-1473 (office), both of Eli Lilly and Company