INDIANAPOLIS -- A May 7 deadline looms for 2,000 Eli Lilly employees who were offered buyouts.

The Indianapolis-based drugmaker hoped 500 workers would take them up on the offer, which was made last month.

The buyout was offered to employees involved in the production of pharmaceutical ingredients for insulin products Humalog and Humulin and the osteoporosis medication Forteo.

The company maintains that no one will be forced out, but that cuts are necessary to remain competitive.

Lilly officials said many of the 2,000 who were given the buyout option are near retirement.

Those who accept the offer will leave the company on June 30, Lilly said.

The company, which earned nearly $3 billion in 2007, said the number of its employees worldwide is down about 12 percent from a peak in 2004, primarily through attrition.