ALLENTOWN, Pa. – News of multi-national pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s move into the Lehigh Valley continues to reverberate.
This is especially true for Lehigh Carbon Community College. The school is set to get $5 million to create a feeder pipeline into the company.
“This space here will be part of our biotechnology wing,” Andrew King, interim dean of science, mathematics and healthcare sciences at Lehigh Carbon Community College, told 69 News reporter Bo Koltnow.
Soon resembling a state-of-the-art lab, it’s part of the college’s new biotechnology lab. It’s meant to be an engineering hub set for possible future employees of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
“This will be the aseptic fill suit, where we will train students to properly gown and how to make those injectable medications – Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound,” King said.
It’s all part of a $10 million new program and curriculum, with $5 million coming from the state, spurred by Lilly’s recent $3.5 billion Lehigh Valley investment announcement.
CEO David Ricks recently spoke on the importance of developing a local workforce.
“So, providing apprenticeships at our sites, working with community colleges,” Ricks said during his Allentown speech last week.
“I’m excited. As a faculty member, I’ve been trying to bring bio tech to the Lehigh Valley for a while,” King said.
Andrew King is heading the new curriculum, which includes hiring more staff and teaching all aspects of what Lilly needs. King put it like this.
“Our graduates are going to be making your medicine,” he said.
Lehigh Carbon Community College President Ann Bieber calls the investment transformational and says first introductory classes are set for this fall. The hub is set to be ready before Lilly’s opening.
It’s an investment in a future still taking shape.
“It’s life changing. I mean, think about when we had these types of jobs. Through the Bethlehem steels and that our community had family sustaining wage jobs. It’s going to serve the generations to come. Having Eli Lilly here,” Bieber explains.