Eli Lilly On Wednesday, said that it will invest at least $ 27 billion to build four new manufacturing sites in the United States, while demand for successful weight loss and diabetes injections soar and that the company is developing new drugs for other conditions.
This occurs when manufacturers of medicines and companies in different industries work to build goodwill with President Donald Trump, who has emphasized compliance with manufacturing in the United States and the reduction in dependence on foreign supply chains. He threatened companies – and pharmaceutical companies in particular – with prices if they do not make products in the United States
Eli Lilly made this announcement during an event in Washington, DC – emphasizing the political nuances of the strategy. The event presented several speakers from the Trump administration, including Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council of the White House, and the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lungick, who explicitly linked the announcement to Trump policies.
Lutnick said that the investment is “exactly what the Trump administration is, which consists in building and manufacturing and making up in America, investing in America, building in America”. He thanked Eli Lilly for “doing exactly what the president hoped to happen”.
Lutnick added that “if you want to understand the” United States “pricing policy, I simply articulated it”.
This decision brings US Manufacturing Investments from Eli Lilly to more than $ 50 billion in recent years. The 23 billion other dollars come from the company’s investments in new factories and extensions on the site since 2020, which has helped to facilitate shortages of supplying its popular drugs.
“This represents the largest investment in pharmaceutical expansion in the history of the United States,” said Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, during the event. “We make these investments … to prepare the demand that we plan for future drugs on pipelines in our therapeutic areas.”
The actions of the company increased by more than 1% on Wednesday.
Three of the future American sites announced Wednesday will make ingredients active in medicines, such as shooting, the active ingredient of the medicine to the obesity of Eli Lilly Zepbound and the treatment of Mounjaro diabetes. Ricks noted that there is a “real gap in the supply chain in the United States with regard to the active availability of ingredients in our country”.
The fourth site will extend the global manufacturing network of the company for future injectable therapies, he added.
Eli Lilly did not decided where the four new American sites are, said Ricks. The company will accept localization bids until March 13 and will announce decisions on the new sites in the coming months.
Eli Lilly said the four new sites will create more than 3,000 jobs for workers such as engineers and scientists, as well as 10,000 construction jobs as factories are built. The other American company factories include sites in North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin.
New investments are not only dedicated to current and future treatments for obesity and diabetes of Eli Lilly. The company traces its future beyond Zepbound and Mounjaro, in the hope of providing medication from its large pipeline of cancer products, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions.
Ricks said that society is optimistic about its pipeline in therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience.
However, new investments are based on the success of Zepbound and Mounjaro, who share the domination of the booming market for so-called GLP-1 drugs with Novo NordiskWegovy weight loss drug and ozempic diabetes treatment. Some analysts expect the global obesity medication market was worth more than $ 150 billion a year in the early 2030s, which makes it essential that the two companies maintain their share while other drug manufacturers are suppressing.
During the event, Ricks took a chance on cheaper compound versions of its injectable drugs, saying that “America faces a growing threat from an influx of counterfeit and compound drugs”.
Eli Lilly’s efforts to stimulate the offer of Zepbound and Mounjaro aims to guarantee that eligible patients access in complete access to these brand treatments instead of cheaper compound versions. Patients clashed towards these unprecedented copies when brand medicines were in shortage, or if they did not have an insurance coverage for expensive treatments.
The FDA has since declared the shortage of shooting, which essentially prohibits many pharmacies of composition of the manufacture of copycates.
Hassett said that the problem “also disturbs the White House” because offshore copying drug producers are “threatening lives in the United States”
In another sign of the political objectives of the announcement, Ricks praised the law on tax reductions and jobs of Trump 2017, saying that the legislation was “fundamental” for manufacturing investments of the company. He called “essential that these policies are permanently extended this year”.
The main provisions of this law should expire at the end of December – although a reduction in the corporate tax rate will remain in force.
This legislation, adopted by a mainly republican congress during the first term of Trump, was the greatest overhaul of the tax code in almost three decades which have reduced taxes for individuals and businesses. It has reduced the tax rate of companies to 21%, closed deductions for state taxes and premises to $ 10,000 and expanded the children’s tax credit, among other efforts.
“Long -term progress will also require American policies to continue to protect intellectual property rights and promote an innovative environment where we can do our job,” said Ricks.
Novo Nordisk has also invested billions in manufacturing to increase the offer of Wegovy and Ozempic, announcing in 2024 that it would take more than three sites from the Catalent Contract Manufacturer for $ 11 billion.