U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Company will invest an additional $4.5 billion (about 6.59 trillion won) in its Indiana manufacturing complex to expand production of obesity drugs and gene therapies.
Lilly said on the 6th (local time) that it will make an additional investment in the large-scale manufacturing complex being built in Lebanon, Indiana.
This brings the amount Lilly has pledged since 2020 to expand manufacturing facilities in the United States to more than $50 billion (about 73 trillion won). Of that, more than $21 billion (about 30 trillion won) has been concentrated in Indiana, where its headquarters is located.
The strategy is to respond to surging demand for glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 obesity drugs while proactively securing capacity to produce next-generation medicines.
The new funds will go into Lilly Lebanon Advanced Therapies, a gene therapy manufacturing facility, and an expansion of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant.
The Lebanon complex is Lilly's key manufacturing hub, being built on a total of 600 acres (about 730,000 pyeong). The company broke ground in 2023, and the gene therapy plant has now begun initial operations.
In particular, the API plant under construction will produce key ingredients for the diabetes drug Mounjaro and the obesity drug zepbound. Lilly said that once completed, the facility will be the largest API production plant in the United States.
The additional investment is also expected to enable production of the recently launched oral GLP-1 obesity drug Foundayo and the triple hormone receptor agonist retatrutide under development. Retatrutide is regarded in the industry as a next-generation "game changer" candidate for obesity treatment.
Another manufacturing facility, Lilly Medicine Foundry, is scheduled for completion in 2027. Combining research and development (R&D) and clinical manufacturing functions for small-molecule and biopharmaceuticals, it will produce treatments for cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.
David Ricks, Lilly's chief executive officer (CEO), said, "From genetic medicines that target the root causes of disease to oral obesity medicines that millions can take, we are developing the medicines of the future while building world-class factories to produce them."
The industry sees Lilly's aggressive expansion of investment as tied to the battle for leadership in the obesity drug market. Lilly is currently competing with Novo Nordisk for dominance in the global GLP-1 market, with a strategy to cement an advantage through oral obesity drugs and next-generation therapies.
Meanwhile, as the U.S. government has leaned on tariff policy to push manufacturing reshoring (bringing production back to the United States), global drugmakers have followed with investments in the country. Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, and AstraZeneca have also recently announced plans to invest in U.S. manufacturing facilities.