Supplier Development
Why It Matters | Our Approach | Progress | | Resources | Related Topics
Last updated: July 1, 2026
Why It Matters
To Lilly
We view supplier development as a strategic investment in quality, resilience, and shared success. By building strong, collaborative relationships with our suppliers, grounded in transparency, continuous improvement, and shared values, we help ensure that our supply chain can reliably support the delivery of high-quality medicines to patients around the world.
To the World
Developing responsible, capable suppliers strengthens global supply chains and promotes broader economic opportunities. When companies invest in their partners’ growth and performance, they help raise standards, foster innovation, and create more sustainable and inclusive value chains that benefit people, communities, and the planet.
Approach
We believe that doing business with a varied set of suppliers helps us accelerate innovation and deliver strong results. By including fresh perspectives and insights from new and small businesses to meet our needs across the value chain, we strengthen both our own company and firms we work with.
Our supplier development programs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico aim to engage potential suppliers that have historically been underrepresented in corporate purchasing. The programs we have created help us deliver on our purpose while also improving the economic opportunities of the suppliers we work alongside.
Our strategy focuses on three areas: engaging small and under-leveraged businesses, advocacy organizations and industry partners to ensure an inclusive pool of potential suppliers; empowering small and under-leveraged businesses to access economic opportunities; and positively impacting the communities where we live and operate through education, mentorship and opportunity.
Mentorship and Engagement
We mentor small and under-leveraged businesses through support programs aimed at helping these suppliers build stronger business practices. We host virtual and in-person networking events to connect qualified suppliers with our procurement professionals and to enhance our partnerships with advocacy groups.
Local Suppliers
We actively work with smaller local suppliers where Lilly has facilities, including in Indiana, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. We seek to engage with local suppliers and advocacy organizations, and proactively develop and implement supplier outreach plans in the areas where new facilities will be established in the coming years.
Progress
Small Business Impact
In 2025, our supplier development efforts continued to deliver meaningful economic impact while deepening our relationships with small and under-leveraged businesses.
We spent approximately $1.7 billion with nearly 1,600 suppliers classified as small businesses as defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) small business size standards. This spending supported $3.0 billion in economic impact in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, and more than $1.1 billion in earnings by people in jobs across our supply chain and their communities. These figures represent a U.S. government fiscal year 2025, beginning on October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025. During its last audit in 2016, the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized Lilly’s efforts to promote and maintain supplier inclusion as “outstanding”, the highest possible rating.
We again offered the Lilly Mentor Protégé program by mentoring eight small businesses through an eight-month structured development program. The objective of the program is to develop small businesses by sharing Lilly methodologies and industry best practices to increase the protégés' readiness for future business opportunities - helping suppliers build their networks and capabilities for working with us and other customers.
We also continued to provide strategic leadership by serving on various boards and committees with several advocacy organizations, including a leadership role on the Business Equity for Indiana – Procurement Roundtable, which advocates for local, small and/or under-leveraged businesses.
Resources