Lilly reveals $3bn orforglipron facility in Netherlands
After so many announcements of new facility builds in the US, Eli Lilly has made a welcome commitment to Europe with the announcement of a facility in the Netherlands that will be used to make oral medicines, including its GLP-1 agonist orforglipron.
The new $3 billion manufacturing facility will be sited at the Leiden Bio Science Park in Katwijk, and will be Lilly's first in the Netherlands. Its current manufacturing units in Europe are located in France, Ireland, Italy, and Spain.
According to the company, construction of the facility will start next year and will support 1,500 jobs, with around 500 engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians expected to be employed there when it is completed. However, Lilly also said that the project is still subject to "the finalisation of government permits and local approvals."
Netherlands economics affairs minister, Vincent Karremans, said that the Katwijk location was selected after Lilly considered "many locations across Europe."
The investment in the Netherlands follows Lilly's announcement of new facilities in Texas and Puerto Rico, with two more new sites – both in the US – due to be announced in the next few months.
Lilly is one of several big pharma groups that have succumbed to pressure from the Trump administration to invest heavily in US manufacturing in an attempt to avoid tariffs on medicine imports into what is currently the world's largest pharma market.
Meanwhile, pharma industry leaders recently warned European countries that the region could face a collapse in capital investment projects unless there are policy changes that allow higher prices to be charged for new and novel medicines.
"With extensive investments already underway in the US, our planned expansion in Europe further strengthens our ability to deliver medicines to patients worldwide," said Lilly chief executive David Ricks.
"Localised manufacturing ensures we can quickly respond to meet regional demand and accelerate distribution within Europe," he added.
The company has extremely high expectations for orforglipron, currently racing to market as a daily, oral obesity and diabetes therapy that would complement Lilly's weekly, injectable Zepbound/Mounjaro (tirzepatide), already growing at a phenomenal pace with combined sales topping $10 billion in the third quarter.
Orforglipron has generated positive results in four phase 3 trials in diabetes and obesity, and is due to be filed for approval in the latter indication before the end of the year and in diabetes in 2026.
Its main rival in attempting to capture the oral GLP-1 market is Novo Nordisk, which already has approval for an oral version of its semaglutide-based diabetes therapy Wegovy, branded as Rybelsus, and is due to get an FDA response on a weight-loss filing in the coming weeks.
