Lilly inflates US facility investment spending by $4.5bn
Lilly's Lebanon campus.
Having already committed last year to capital investments of $27 billion in the US to ward off the threat of tariffs, Eli Lilly has upped the ante.
The Indianapolis-headquartered pharma group pledged another $4.5 billion to the investment programme, all in its home state of Indiana, which will be spent across two of its three facilities at its Lebanon campus.
The additional cash – which takes the total invested in Indiana to $21 billion since 2020 – was revealed as Lilly formally opened the Lebanon Advanced Therapies plant at the site, which is its first devoted to genetic medicine manufacturing and will cater for both clinical and commercial production.
When completed, Lebanon will have two other facilities, one devoted to active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production – including for its fast-growing tirzepatide-based medicines for obesity and diabetes - and another called Lilly Medicine Foundry that will serve as a centre for advanced manufacturing and drug development. The latter was announced in 2024 with a $4.5 billion investment plan.
"Lilly's evolving pipeline, as well as anticipated demand for its medicines, prompted this additional commitment," said the company in a statement, which added that Lebanon "is the cornerstone of Lilly's domestic manufacturing buildout."
Lilly is among a group of big pharma companies that have announced major capital investment programmes in the US in response to the threat of tariffs on imports of medicines made elsewhere by the Trump administration.
Its other investments are a $3.5 billion facility in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, for weight-loss medicines – including highly anticipated triple agonist retatrutide – as well as new capacity in Virginia, Texas, and Alabama dedicated to the production of APIs. That ties in with an ongoing US drive to reduce the pharma industry's use of imported ingredients from China and other countries around the world
Lilly will make new oral obesity therapy Foundayo (orforglipron) at its $6.5 billion Houston, Texas and $6 billion Huntsville, Alabama sites, as well as a recently unveiled $3 billion facility in the Netherlands.
Its other new US facility – a $5 billion plant in Goochland, Virginia – will produce monoclonal antibodies and bioconjugates, including antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) products.
"From genetic medicines that could one day prevent disease at its source, to Foundayo, a pill making weight loss treatment accessible to millions, we are not just discovering the medicines of the future – we are building the world's most advanced plants to make them," said Lilly chief executive David Ricks.
"When our Lebanon API site opens in 2027, it will be the largest API production site in US history, a commitment we chose to build here, at home," he added.
