An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is on display in New York City on December 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Eli Lilly announced Friday that it is investing an additional $5.3 billion in a manufacturing facility in Lebanon, Indiana, to boost supplies of its wildly popular weight-loss drug Zepbound, diabetes treatment Mounjaro and other drugs.
Demand for these treatments has far outpaced supply over the past year, causing shortages in the U.S. and forcing the pharmaceutical giant to invest heavily in expanding its production.
This new commitment brings Eli Lilly’s total investment at the site to $9 billion. This makes it Eli Lilly’s largest manufacturing investment in its nearly 150-year history, the company’s CEO David Ricks said in a statement.
Eli Lilly expects the Lebanon site to begin producing medicines in late 2026 and expand operations through 2028. The company first announced its plans to build new locations in Indiana in 2022.
In particular, the facility will increase Eli Lilly’s capacity to produce the active ingredient tirzepatide in Zepbound and Mounjaro. The company calls these treatments incretin medications, which mimic certain gut hormones to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar.
“This multi-site campus will manufacture our newest medicines, including Zepbound and Mounjaro, support pipeline 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, operations staff and laboratory technicians, will staff the site when it is fully operational.
The company has spent more than $18 billion building, expanding and purchasing manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe since 2020.
Eli Lilly has several manufacturing sites that are either “ramping up or under construction,” Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told investors during a conference call last month. These include the facility in Lebanon and another location in Indiana, two locations in North Carolina, one in Ireland, one in Germany and a seventh location that the company recently acquired from Nexus Pharmaceuticals.
Investors cheered Eli Lilly after the company raised its full-year sales forecast by $2 billion, partly due to confidence that production of Zepbound, Mounjaro and other incretin drugs will continue for the rest of the year will increase.
“Now that we are four months into the year, we have better insight into these capacity nodes and feel more confident,” Ashkenazi said during the call.
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2024-05-24 19:20:12
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