The development cost will go from a projected $425 million when the plan was announced in 2002 to $325 million. An Eli Lilly official announced the news in a recent meeting of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

Eli Lilly had considered building the manufacturing plant--its first outside of its home state of Indiana--in North Carolina or South Carolina before settling on the Commonwealth of Virginia, and more specifically, the partially county-owned Innovation technology and biotech corporate park. Bordered by Interstates 66, 495 and 95, the compound is close to the boundary separating Prince William County from the City of Manassas and surrounds the George Mason University Life Science Campus. Eli Lilly's home will still occupy a 120-acre parcel in the park, allowing the company the option for future expansion.

Construction of the facility was originally slated to begin in 2004, but that date was delayed. Now the drugmaker expects to begin construction in winter this year, with a target completion date of 2007 and expectations that the facility will be fully operational by 2009. The next step for Eli Lilly is to select a construction team for the job, a task that the company expects to wrap up by August.