(wibc.com photo by Eric Berman)

Eli Lilly has announced a $140 million expansion of its Indianapolis manufacturing plant.

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The new 80,000-square-foot facility will manufacture insulin cartridges for injection pens. Those cartridges are currently made only at Lilly plants in France and Italy. Lilly president of global manufacturing Maria Crowe says the company can draw on its Indianapolis workforce to staff the factory. And since the pens and the insulin itself are already made in Indianapolis, Crowe says it's a chance to place the entire manufacturing chain in one location and gain a toehold for what's expected to be a growing U.S. insulin market.

Other than the construction workers who will build the plant over the next 14 months, Crowe says the plant won't necessarily create any new jobs. It'll have 100 workers when it opens in 2015. There'll be a gap between completion of the building and the grand opening to allow the Food and Drug Administration to inspect and certify the plant.