Amgen and Eli Lilly made significant investments in Puerto Rico in 2025, aiming to strengthen their operations on the island. Amgen announced a $650 million expansion of its biologics manufacturing facility in Juncos, which is expected to generate nearly 750 jobs spanning construction and drug production. In October, Eli Lilly committed over $1.2 billion to modernize and expand its Lilly del Caribe site in Carolina. This upgrade will enable the facility to manufacture orforglipron, a key oral GLP-1 drug central to Lilly’s future plans.
These commitments come as Puerto Rico attempts to recover some of the pharmaceutical manufacturing prominence it lost after U.S. tax incentives were phased out two decades ago. Employment in the sector peaked at more than 29,000 people in 2004 but dropped below 14,000 annually from 2020 through 2024.
Didi Caldwell, CEO of Global Location Strategies, commented on the decline: “It’s the perfect case study for what happens when the tax picture changes,” she told BioSpace. “It’s honestly a little bit of a sad picture for me. The U.S. government—I don’t know that they realized how changing [taxes] was going to create such a vacuum there, where companies started leaving or at least started pursuing other locations.”
Following these changes, many companies shifted operations overseas; Ireland was one beneficiary due to its own tax incentives for pharma manufacturers.
John Bozek, chief strategy and research officer at InvestPR, described Puerto Rico's current efforts: The island is promoting its institutional stability as an unincorporated U.S. territory along with access to skilled labor and favorable logistics routes.
There are mixed signs regarding Puerto Rico's progress in regaining its manufacturing base. While pharmaceutical exports rose through 2024 before declining during most of 2025 and employment levels remained flat despite increased automation—automation has led to smaller but potentially better-paid workforces—Bozek maintains that Puerto Rico still has “a highly developed, highly skilled workforce” with one of the highest concentrations of pharma roles nationwide.
However, Caldwell expressed concern about eroding workforce skills as experienced workers retire or move away from the industry.
Infrastructure challenges remain prominent as well. Hurricanes Irma and Maria severely damaged Puerto Rico’s electricity grid in 2017; federal agencies allocated over $17 billion for repairs but by late 2024 recovery was incomplete according to reports from the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMB). In 2025 FOMB noted that residents continue facing unreliable service paired with high electricity rates.
Amgen addressed these risks directly in its latest annual report by referencing recent natural disasters that forced facilities onto backup generators—a situation that did not materially impact Amgen itself but disrupted third-party suppliers.
Manufacturers frequently discuss energy supply issues when considering investment on the island; Bozek explained this is not an insurmountable barrier: “it’s not really a difficult conversation to have.” He added that contingency planning has long been part of doing business there due to geographic isolation from mainland grids.
Bozek believes ongoing cooperation between government entities offering incentives and providers of backup energy solutions helps reassure potential investors: “It’s not a perfect place—no place is—and it is an issue that we have to address when we talk to these companies. But it’s something that is definitely doable,” he said. “I think the evidence of all the companies that have been here for a long time shows that it is something that can be taken care of.”
