Lilly to invest $3.5B in injectable drug, device manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania

As part of a $27 billion commitment to boost  U.S. domestic production, Eli Lilly on Friday announced plans to invest more than $3.5 billion in a new manufacturing facility in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania that will produce its next-generation obesity therapies — including its investigational drug retatrutide.

Construction of the Lehigh Valley site, located in Fogelsville, is expected to start in 2026 and is slated to be operational in 2031. The capital expenditure project will be Lilly’s newest injectable medicine and device manufacturing facility, which is meant to increase access to its weight loss drugs and improve the domestic supply, according to the announcement.

The new site, Lilly's tenth U.S. manufacturing facility announced since 2020, will leverage technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, integrated monitoring, as well as data analytics. The drugmaker said it will “partner with local universities and invest in education across Pennsylvania” to develop the talent required to operate the facility — in addition to generating 2,000 construction jobs.

Lilly plans to create 850 high-value jobs including engineers, scientists, operations personnel, and lab technicians. According to the company, the Lehigh Valley site was selected from more than 300 applications with its decision partially based on its proximity to STEM universities, technical manufacturing economy, and existing infrastructure — such as access to utilities, transportation — as well as favorable zoning and incentives.

“We’re creating high‑quality jobs and collaborating across the region — with suppliers, educators, and workforce‑development partners — to make critical medicines in the U.S.,” CEO Dave Ricks said in a statement.

US, global investments

In February 2025, Lilly announced a $27 billion investment to build four new U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing sites — three for APIs and one to manufacture injectable products and devices. The three API facilities will be built in Alabama, Texas, and Virginia.

Last month, Eli Lilly announced plans to invest $6 billion in a new API manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama that will produce small molecule synthetic and peptide medicines, including Lilly's oral GLP-1 orforglipron.

A $6.5 billion API facility in Houston, Texas will focus on domestic production of small molecule synthetic medicines, including orforglipron. A $5 billion API manufacturing facility near Richmond, Virginia is meant to boost Lilly’s domestic production for cancer, autoimmune, and other advanced therapies.

Lilly is also investing 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.

Since 2020, Lilly has committed more than $55 billion globally to grow its manufacturing capacity, with more than $50 billion in the U.S. Driven by the Trump administration’s threat of imposing industry-specific tariffs, 2025 was a year of strong pledges by Big Pharma with large pharmaceutical companies committing hundreds of billions of dollars to onshore drug production.

Tariffs are increasing costs on APIs, raw materials, and lab supplies which is causing drugmakers such as Lilly to take “calculated steps to reduce exposure,” according to consulting firm West Monroe’s 2026 Life Sciences Industry Outlook. As an example, the report pointed to Lilly’s $5 billion investment in a new U.S. manufacturing site in Virginia to shore up access to APIs and mitigate future supply risk.

“Rather than fully reshoring, many firms are hedging against policy shifts and tariff volatility — adding domestic capacity while keeping trusted overseas partners,” West Monroe said. “Clinical development will stay global, with trial activity shifting toward lower-tariff regions as logistics and compliance footprints remain globally distributed.”

In November 2025, Lilly announced plans to build a $3 billion oral medicine manufacturing facility in the Netherlands. The capital expenditure is meant to boost Lilly’s capacity in Europe for patients worldwide and strengthen its global supply chain.

Lilly also said in October that it is investing $1 billion in India to expand contract manufacturing capacity. The move will reportedly strengthen the company’s supply chain through local partnerships and support its global production network.