An injectable pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly's weight loss drug, is displayed in New York City, U.S., on December 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Eli Lilly On Friday it said it is investing another $5.3 billion in a manufacturing plant in Lebanon, Indiana, to increase supply of its wildly popular weight-loss drug Zepbound, the diabetes treatment Mounjaro and other medications.
Demand for these treatments has far exceeded supply over the last year, causing shortages in the United States and forcing the pharmaceutical giant to invest large amounts to increase manufacturing.
That new commitment brings Eli Lilly's total investment in the site to $9 billion. That makes it Eli Lilly's largest manufacturing investment in its nearly 150-year history, company CEO David Ricks said in a statement.
Eli Lilly expects the Lebanon site to begin manufacturing drugs in late 2026 and expand operations through 2028. The company first announced plans to build new sites in Indiana in 2022.
The plant will specifically increase Eli Lilly's ability to manufacture the active ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro, called tirzepatide. The company refers to those treatments as incretin drugs, which mimic certain gut hormones to suppress a person's appetite and regulate blood sugar.
“This multi-site campus will manufacture our latest medicines, including Zepbound and Mounjaro, support portfolio growth and leverage the latest technology and automation for maximum efficiency, safety and quality control,” Ricks said in a statement.
Eli Lilly said 900 employees, including engineers, scientists, operational staff and laboratory technicians, will staff the site when it is fully operational.
The company has spent more than $18 billion to build, expand and buy manufacturing plants in the US and Europe since 2020.
Eli has several manufacturing sites “under construction or under construction,” Eli Lilly Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told investors during an earnings call last month. That includes the Lebanon plant and another site in Indiana, two locations in North Carolina, one in Ireland, one in Germany and a seventh site the company recently acquired from Nexus Pharmaceuticals.
Investors cheered Eli Lilly after the company raised its full-year revenue outlook by $2 billion, in part due to confidence in ramping up production of Zepbound, Mounjaro and other anti-incretin drugs for the The rest of the year.
“Now that we're four months into the year, we have greater visibility into that, into these capacity nodes, and we feel more confident,” Ashkenazi said during the call.
