Eli Lilly unveils plans to invest $27bn in four new US manufacturing sites

The investment, which Lilly claims is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing investment in US history, raises the company’s total US capital expansion commitments to more than $50bn since 2020 and is aimed at increasing its domestic medicine production across therapeutic areas.

Lilly said it expects to begin construction on the four domestic manufacturing sites this year, adding that the facilities should begin making medicines for patients within five years.

Three of the locations will focus on manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), as well as “reshoring critical capabilities” of small molecule chemical synthesis, while the fourth will extend Lilly’s network for future injectable therapies.

The plants are predicted to create over 3,000 jobs for highly skilled workers, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians. The company also anticipated that almost 10,000 construction jobs will be created during the development of the sites.

David Ricks, Lilly’s chief executive officer, said: “Lilly’s optimism about the potential of our pipeline across therapeutic areas – cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience – drives our unprecedented commitment to our domestic manufacturing build-out.

“Our confidence positions us to help reinvigorate domestic manufacturing, which will benefit hard-working American families and increase exports of medicines made in the [US].”

Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice president and president of Lilly’s manufacturing operations, added that the investment “is a significant step for [the] company, [its] communities and the patients [it serves].”

The announcement comes less than three months after Lilly unveiled a $3bn expansion to the US manufacturing facility that it acquired from Nexus Pharmaceuticals.

The investment in Kenosha County, Wisconsin is aimed at extending the company’s global injectable product manufacturing network to help it meet the growing demand for its diabetes and obesity medicines, as well as future pipeline drugs across multiple therapeutic areas.

The company also said in October that it would be investing $4.5bn into another US facility within the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon, Indiana for advanced manufacturing and drug development.