API Production Eli Lilly Increases Investment at US Site to 9 Billion Dollars

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Eli Lilly and Company has announced fresh investments of 5.3-billion-dollars for its Indiana API manufacturing site. With this move, the company has increased its total investment in the site from 3.7 billion dollars to 9 billion dollars.

Indianapolis/USA – Eli Lilly and Company has more than doubled its investment in its Lebanon, Indiana, manufacturing site with a new 5.3-billion-dollar commitment, increasing the company's total investment in this site from 3.7 billion dollars to 9 billion dollars. This expansion will enhance Lilly's capacity to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for Zepbound (tirzepatide) injection and Mounjaro (tirzepatide) injection so that more adults with chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes may benefit from these important treatments.

Since 2020, Lilly has committed more than 16 billion dollars to develop new manufacturing sites in the U.S. and Europe. New locations outside Indiana include Research Triangle Park and Concord, North Carolina; Limerick, Ireland; and Alzey, Germany. Separately, the company has invested an additional 1.2 billion dollars to update existing manufacturing facilities in Indianapolis and recently acquired an injectable manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, from Nexus Pharmaceuticals. Together, these manufacturing investments total more than 18 billion dollars.

"Today's announcement tops the largest manufacturing investment in our company's history and, we believe, represents the single largest investment in synthetic medicine API manufacturing in U.S. history," said David A. Ricks, Lilly's chair and CEO. "This multi-site campus will make our latest medicines, including Zepbound and Mounjaro, support pipeline growth and leverage the latest technology and automation for maximum efficiency, safety and quality control. Importantly, we are investing in our home state of Indiana, creating high-wage, advanced manufacturing, engineering and science jobs for hundreds of current and future Hoosier families."

Lilly embarked on a significant manufacturing expansion in 2020, driven by the research results for tirzepatide. The company made this strategic investment decision at risk so that upon the approval of Mounjaro (2022) and Zepbound (2023), it could make these medicines available to adults living with type 2 diabetes and obesity, respectively. Since then, the strong demand for these medicines – the only approved treatments activating two incretin hormone receptors, GIP and GLP-1 – underscores the urgent unmet need for treatments in both type 2 diabetes and obesity.

As part of this additional investment in the Lebanon site, located within Indiana's Leap Research and Innovation District, Lilly expects to add 200 full-time jobs for highly skilled workers such as engineers, scientists, operating personnel and lab technicians, resulting in an estimated 900 full-time employees when the facility is fully operational. Additionally, there will be more than 5,000 construction jobs during the site's development.

To support Lilly's expansion project, the state will partner on infrastructure solutions – road improvements, water, electric and other utilities – as well as workforce development commitments and certain economic incentives tied to the company's achievement of investment and employment goals. The state's workforce development support includes the contribution of land, pending approval, for the construction of a learning and training center that will be part of the larger Leap industrial development, along with a commitment to work with Lilly to raise capital for its completion. The new training center aligns with Lilly's previously announced financial support for scholarship and training programs with Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College, and the Biocrossroads-led training center at 16 Tech – part of Indiana's recent Tech Hub designation.

Since breaking ground at its Lebanon manufacturing site in 2023, Lilly has transformed a significant portion of the nearly 600 acres within the complex into an active construction site. The company expects to begin making medicines in Lebanon toward the end of 2026 – with operations scaling up through 2028.

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