Lilly to build $3B oral medicine manufacturing facility in the Netherlands

With its U.S. manufacturing investments well underway, Eli Lilly is now turning to Europe. Lilly on Monday announced it will spend $3 billion to build a production facility in Katwijk, the Netherlands, supporting the drugmaker’s growing portfolio of oral solid medicines in cardiometabolic health, neuroscience, oncology, and immunology.

Slated for construction to begin in 2026, the new facility is meant to boost Lilly’s manufacturing capacity in Europe for patients worldwide and strengthen its global supply chain. The plant will leverage 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 Katwijk 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. The capital expenditure will create up to 1,500 construction jobs and 500 manufacturing positions, including highly skilled engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians, according to the announcement.

“With extensive investments already underway in the U.S., our planned expansion in Europe further strengthens our ability to deliver medicines to patients worldwide. Localized manufacturing ensures we can quickly respond to meet regional demand and accelerate distribution within Europe,” Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said in a statement.

Lilly’s European manufacturing footprint includes four current sites in France, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. The drugmaker noted that a recent worldwide benchmark of 32 countries ranked the Netherlands as a top-tier location in terms of business climate for life sciences companies.

“To meet the growing demand for Lilly medicines, the company has shared plans for three additional EU sites since 2020, including new greenfield sites in Ireland, Germany, and now, the Netherlands,” according to the announcement.

While Lilly has committed more than $55 billion globally to grow its manufacturing capacity since 2020, more than $50 billion has been pledged for investment in the U.S. In February, the company announced a $27 billion commitment 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. That same month, Lilly announced it will build a $6.5 billion API facility in Houston, Texas that will focus on domestic production of small molecule synthetic medicines, including the manufacture of orforglipron.

Last week, Lilly said it will invest $1.2 billion to expand and modernize its site in Carolina, Puerto Rico, supporting the drugmaker’s growing portfolio of oral solid medicines. Construction on the Lilly del Caribe site is expected to start in 2026, with plans to begin producing medicine by the end of 2028.