Charles R. Goulding and Aaron Rofe reveal how industry leaders like Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Roche are going all-in on additive manufacturing.
Additive Manufacturing (AM), more widely known as 3D printing, is increasingly being recognized as a transformative technology within science and medicine, moving beyond just R&D into broader applications. Companies like Johnson & Johnson see healthcare AM as a crucial tool for addressing industry challenges, particularly in delivering personalized healthcare.
The use of AM offers significant advantages such as reduced production times, reduced costs, manufacturing efficiency, and innovative design possibilities. A major driving force behind the value of AM is its ability to enable customization and personalization in ways that are not possible through traditional production methods. Leading players in the pharmaceutical industry, such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, and university research labs, are actively integrating AM into their operations.
Eli Lilly & Co.
Eli Lilly is undertaking significant manufacturing expansion. The company has invested more than US$50 billion in US manufacturing since 2020. A major part of this is a US$27 billion plan to begin construction on four new production facilities in the US starting in 2025. This effort alone more than doubles what the company had previously allocated for domestic manufacturing in the current decade.
These new facilities will include three for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and one for injectable drugs. They aim to have these sites up within five years and expect to create more than 3,000 jobs. Another notable investment from 2024 was an initiative to boost manufacturing capacity, including separate commitments of US$5.3 billion and US$4.5 billion to build out its large complex in Lebanon, Indiana, where the company broke ground in April 2023 with an initial investment of US$3.7 billion.
They are also investing US$3 billion to upgrade an injectables plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which they bought in 2024 for US$925 million. A US$1.7 billion plant is under construction in Concord, North Carolina and expected to be completed in 2027.
Overseas, they are investing US$1.8 billion to expand capacity at two plants in Ireland and building a US$2.5 billion plant in Alzey, Germany expected to begin production in 2027.
These investments, totaling about US$23 billion in recent years before their US$27 billion pledge, are intended to meet anticipated demand for their medicines, prevent loss of market share to compounding pharmacies, and protect against supply chain issues. The investment also aligns with the push for American companies to boost domestic investment.
In the pharmaceutical industry, Additive Manufacturing is opening up new possibilities. Eli Lilly is collaborating with Chinese company Triastek to research novel applications for 3D printed pharmaceuticals, focusing on using Triastek’s Melt Extrusion Deposition (MED) technology. MED technology allows for the layering of melted excipients, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and blended materials to create complex geometric structures that enable precise control over drug release.
The primary goal of this collaboration is to identify unique 3D structures that facilitate programmed release of drugs in specific parts of the intestinal tract to improve bioavailability and maintain consistent drug levels, which is particularly useful for individuals who take multiple medications.
Research involves studying how process parameter affects properties for stability during manufacturing and release and then identifying proper 3D designs for programmed release of multiple drugs in the intestinal tract.
Triastek has its own pipeline, with candidates like T19 for rheumatoid arthritis and T20 for cardiovascular and clotting disorders having received Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance from the FDA. Beyond the specific collaboration, AM can generally be used to create multi-layers pills with multiple drug compartments and different release profile, reducing the daily pill burden for patients with multiple conditions. It can also benefit compounding pharmacies to potentially be used in central locations of clinic-style drug stores to enhance patient care.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is planning a substantial investment in the US. The company recently announced it will spend US$55 billion over the next four years on manufacturing, R&D, and technology in its domestic market. This represents a 25% increase in its investments compared to the previous four years.
The investment supports three advanced manufacturing facilities and the expansion of other sites in its pharmaceutical and medical technology businesses. They have broken ground on a new 500,000 square foot biologics manufacturing facility in Wilson, North Carolina, which is expected to employ 5,000 people for construction and create 500 permanent positions.
The sites of the other facilities have yet to be announced. This expansion is driven by rising demand for their products, such as Darazalex and Carvykti in caner and Tremfya in psoriasis, and the risk of tariffs from overseas production. The investment also includes expanding R&D facilities and increasing technology investments to make drug discovery and development faster, supporting workforce training, and enhancing business operations. Before these expansions are accounted for, J&J claims its benefit to the US economy exceeds US$100 billion a year.
Johnson & Johnson is a significant player in adopting 3D printing across its medical, pharmaceutical, and consumer markets, establishing a 3D Printing Center of Excellence to develop customized surgical tools. J&J sees AM as essential for solving challenges and capitalizing on opportunities, particularly in personalized care. As previously stated, the benefits of AM for J&J include speed, manufacturing efficiency, innovative design, and the ability to offer customized/personalized care.
They are applying AM to areas like surgical tooling, custom implants, personalized medicines, vision care and bioprinting. A major area of value is personalized care, including using patient-specific anatomical models for surgical planning and education, and creating personalized instruments and implants.
Examples include J&J’s TruMatch titanium implants for facial reconstruction and patient-specific cranial/shoulder implants developed with Materialise and its surgical planning software, custom cutting templates and models, and printed customized implants.
J&J is also active in bioprinting, focusing on developing a “toolbox” of biomaterials and creating 3D biological implants for tissue regeneration, such as joint regeneration, with printing functional organs being a future goal. J&J’s strategy involves acquisitions of companies specializing in AM, such as Emerging Implant Technologies (EIT) for spinal implants and Tissue Regeneration (TRS) for bioresorbable implants, as well as numerous partnerships with tech companies and academic institutions. The ultimate goal for J&J is to use AM to connect more closely with patients and consumers throughout their healthcare journey.
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG – “Roche”
Roche is also making a significant investment in the US. Back in April, the company announced it will invest US$50 billion over the next five years in US operation. This investment aims to strengthen Roche’s existing footprint and is expected to create more than 12,000 new jobs, including nearly 6,500 construction jobs and 1,000 jobs at new and expanded facilities, adding to their existing base of over 25,000 employees across 24 sites in eight US states.
The investment includes new state-of-the-art R&D sites and new and expanded manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and California, with an additional site still to be announced. It also covers expanded and upgraded US manufacturing and distribution capabilities for innovative medicines and diagnostics in Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon, and California. Specific projects include gene therapy manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, a new 900,000 square foot manufacturing center for next generation weight loss medications, a new manufacturing facility for continuous glucose monitoring in Indiana, and a new R&D center in Massachusetts focused on cutting edge AI research and serving as a hub for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism R&D.
There will also be significant expansion and upgrading of existing pharmaceuticals and diagnostics R&D centers in Arizona, Indiana, and California. Roche’s investment underscores its commitment to US R&D and manufacturing. Upon completion, Roche expects to export more medicines from the US than it imports.
Roche is another pharmaceutical giant utilizing AM in its R&D efforts. Roche is intensifying its focus on Organs-on-a-Chip technology, which integrates 3D cell culture, microfluids, and 3D printing to cultivate human cells on a chip to represent organs. This technology allows for early screening of drug candidates for efficacy and toxicity and has the potential to enable personalized statements about a drug’s effects based on individual cell responses.
Organ-on-a-chip technology will also help reduce the need for animal models in testing, although the technology is still in its early stages and doesn’t fully replicate the complexity of real organs, meaning animal models remain necessary for the time being. Although the technology still has a long way to go, it will help get medicine from the lab to the bedside much faster.
Laboratory Innovation
As federal research grants face increasing scrutiny from Washington, universities and NIH-funded labs are being challenged to demonstrate efficiency and accountability in how taxpayer dollars are spent. Many university laboratories, especially those run by graduate students or postdoctoral candidates, may lack the experience and operational expertise to manage large, resource-intensive projects efficiently. Rice University has stepped forward with a model of transparency and optimization, publishing a feature in Rice Magazine titled “Where Our Research Dollars Go”, offering a clear breakdown of federally funded university research.
This approach sets a new standard for efficiency and sustainability by identifying research expenses as direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs cover essentials like researcher salaries, lab materials, and summer interns. Rice emphasizes that funded projects must provide real-world impactful applications that go beyond academic theory. Indirect costs encompass the necessary infrastructure such as utilities, facilities, and IT.
To optimize these costs, Rice highlights the increased use of AI-powered data analytics through predictive modeling, which helps research teams reduce waste, manage inventory, and streamline experiment cycles. This AI efficiency is valuable for additive manufacturing applications in labs, where build failures or wasted materials can be costly. This focus on efficiency in the research sector highlights a broader trend where institutions are pressured to “do more with less”, with AI-driven systems seen as a powerful solution.
For example, Lila A.I., a Cambridge-based startup integrating AI with life sciences, materials research, and 3D printing, is developing AI Science Factories (AISFs) aimed at automating and accelerating experimentation and scaling research. Such platforms are vital for universities such as Johns Hopkins and Columbia, which have faced declining federal funding, to innovate and optimize lab resources.
This type of AI efficiency, whether developed internally like at Rice or leveraged from external platforms like Lila AI, is particularly valuable for AM, where build failures and miscalibrations can be costly. This emphasis on efficient operations is crucial as 3D printing is now an integral part of R&D projects in various universities and labs, especially those focused on robotics, healthcare, and aerospace.
Many labs funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) have already utilized 3D printing for applications such as cellular scaffolds, orthopedic models, microfluidic devices, and experimental drug delivery systems, and several other like Stanford, MIT, and Georgia Tech have embraced centralized 3D printing labs as critical infrastructure.
The use of AM enables the rapid, cost-effective production of labware and experimental tools such as pipette holders and reagent organizers. Furthermore, resin-based printers can be used to revolutionize the design and production of microfluids and Organ-on-a-chip devices with micro-meter level precision. Through bioprinting, labs can deposit living cells and biomaterials to create 3D structures like organoids, which are used for studying disease, testing drugs, and exploring personalized medicine.
Integrating 3D printing into the lab helps streamline operations, allowing for faster design-test-learned cycles and more reliable experimental controls by connecting a 3D printed object as a data point to track variables, helping reduce human error and boost reproducibility. To fully leverage AM’s potential, universities must support this technological shift by ensuring training for lab leaders and prioritizing investments in 3D printers and materials. Efficiency in the lab is now more achievable than ever, with AI tools for lab management and design-forward research spaces providing institutions with the tools and financial rationale to improve their performance.
The Research & Development Tax Credit
The now permanent Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit is available for companies developing new or improved products, processes and/or software.
3D printing can help boost a company’s R&D Tax Credits. Wages for technical employees creating, testing and revising 3D printed prototypes are typically eligible expenses toward the R&D Tax Credit. Similarly, when used as a method of improving a process, time spent integrating 3D printing hardware and software can also be an eligible R&D expense. Lastly, when used for modeling and preproduction, the costs of filaments consumed during the development process may also be recovered.
Whether it is used for creating and testing prototypes or for final production, 3D printing is a great indicator that R&D Credit-eligible activities are taking place. Companies implementing this technology at any point should consider taking advantage of R&D Tax Credits.
Conclusion
Overall, additive manufacturing is becoming an increasingly crucial technology across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, from fundamental lab research aiming for greater efficiency to developing complex drug delivery systems and creating personalized medical devices.
Pharmaceutical giants like Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Roche, as well as university research labs, are capitalizing on the unique capabilities of AM technology, particularly its ability to create complex geometries and enable personalization. The continued success and broader adoption of AM in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector will be significantly influenced by ongoing technological advancements and the establishment of clear regulatory precedents.
