Lilly to invest $1.2B in Puerto Rico facility to boost US oral medicine manufacturing

As part of a multi-year investment in U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing, Eli Lilly on Wednesday announced it will invest more than $1.2 billion to expand and modernize its site in Carolina, Puerto Rico, supporting the drugmaker’s growing portfolio of oral solid medicines in cardiometabolic health, neuroscience, oncology, and immunology.

The expansion at the Lilly del Caribe site will boost its U.S. oral medicine production capacity and integrate advanced technologies, including dock-to-dock automation and material flow, paperless manufacturing, process analytical technology, as well as spray-dried dispersion — which allows oral medicines to be effectively absorbed.

The modernized facility will manufacture Lilly’s first oral, small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist — orforglipron — which the company expects to submit to global regulatory agencies for obesity by the end of 2025.

Construction on the Lilly del Caribe site is expected to start in 2026, with plans to begin producing medicine by the end of 2028. The capital expenditure project will create up to 1,000 construction jobs and 100 high-tech manufacturing positions, according to the announcement.

"After 60 years, Lilly del Caribe continues to play an important role in making life-changing medicines for people in the U.S. and beyond,” Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice president and president of Lilly Manufacturing Operations, said in a statement. “Our continued investments in capacity, infrastructure, advanced technologies and highly specialized jobs will further cement the site's significance in Lilly's global manufacturing network."

Since 2020, Lilly has committed more than $55 billion globally to grow its manufacturing capacity, with more than $50 billion in the U.S. In February, the company announced a $27 billion investment to build four new U.S. manufacturing sites — three for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and one to manufacture injectable products and devices — with two site locations announced so far and two more to follow in the next few months.

In September, Lilly said it plans to construct a $5 billion API manufacturing plant near Richmond, Virginia, which is meant to boost its domestic production for cancer, autoimmune, and other advanced therapies. It will be the drugmaker’s first dedicated, fully integrated API and drug product facility for its emerging bioconjugate platform and monoclonal antibody portfolio.

Last month, Lilly also announced it will build a $6.5 billion API facility at Generation Park in Houston, Texas. Expected to be operational within five years, the site in a commercial development in the Lake Houston area northeast of the city will focus on domestic production of small molecule synthetic medicines, including the manufacture of orforglipron.

Large biopharma companies like Lilly continue to invest in their manufacturing infrastructure in Puerto Rico. In September, Amgen announced it is investing $650 million to expand its biologics plant in Juncos. The project will increase drug production capacity and integrate advanced technologies across operations to strengthen Amgen’s U.S. supply chain, according to the company.