On 3 April 2026, RED Company submitted the permit application for the construction of Lilly’s production facility to the Municipality of Katwijk. To demonstrate that the development is feasible and complies with all applicable laws and regulations, RED Company has carried out more than 25 studies over the past few years as part of the application. The municipality will now assess the application and the supporting studies. The Katwijk municipal council will issue a binding recommendation on the application. Once the municipality has published its proposed decision, interested parties will be able to review all documents and, if they wish, submit their views. These views will be assessed and may lead to adjustments to the decision. In principle, the municipality has 26 weeks to complete this entire process.
Submitting the application is an important milestone for RED Company and Lilly following the announcement of the investment in Katwijk at the end of last year. Marco Frenken, General Manager of Lilly in the Netherlands, said: “We are proud that we have succeeded in submitting a well-substantiated permit application. In recent months, we have had the opportunity to meet many stakeholders in and around Katwijk to explain our plans. Lilly wants to be a good neighbour to the people of Katwijk.”
Nanne de Ru, co-founder of RED Company, said: “Over the past few months, together with the teams from Lilly, the Municipality of Katwijk, the Province of South Holland, and the national government, we have worked incredibly hard on this permit application. The result is something we can all be proud of. We are also grateful for the constructive and pleasant cooperation with local residents. We look forward to seeing this facility, which is so important for the Netherlands and Europe, realized quickly.”
On 3 November last year, in The Hague (Amare), Lilly announced that it plans to build a €2.6 billion production facility in the Municipality of Katwijk. This new facility, which will form part of the Leiden Bio Science Park, will strengthen the global supply chain for medicines. The facility in Katwijk will use advanced manufacturing technologies to meet the needs of Lilly’s growing portfolio of oral solid medicines in the areas of cardiometabolic health (such as diabetes and obesity), neuroscience, oncology, and immunology. This investment will create 500 jobs in the Province of South Holland, including positions for engineers, scientists, operations staff, and laboratory personnel. In addition, an estimated 1,500 jobs will be created during construction, which is expected to begin at the end of this year.
