Dave Ricks, Chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly, speaks during a press conference in Houston, September 23, 2025.
Antranik Tavitien | Reuters
Elie Lilly announced Friday that it will spend more than $3.5 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley that will help it make its next-generation obesity drugs.
This includes a closely watched experimental drug called retatrutide, which showed the highest weight loss ever seen for any treatment in a late-stage trial.
This is the fourth establishment in a series of new American investments planned by the pharmaceutical giant. Lilly announced in February 2025 that it would spend at least $27 billion to build new domestic manufacturing facilities, adding to $23 billion in previous investments since 2020.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told him the drugmaker plans to build six factories in the United States. But Lilly has not confirmed these plans.
The company said Friday it expects construction on the Pennsylvania plant to begin this year and for the site to be operational in 2031.
This additional production capacity for upcoming weight loss treatments is crucial. Retatrutide is seen as a key pillar of Lilly’s long-term obesity strategy after its popular Zepbound injection and upcoming obesity pill.
Some health experts say retatrutide, which works by targeting three gut hormones rather than just one or two, can reach patients with severe obesity who would benefit from even greater weight loss than existing injections can offer. Lilly plans to release data from seven more Phase 3 trials of the drug this year.
The company and its main rival, Novo Nordiskhave invested heavily in increasing their production capacity after facing supply shortages for their existing weekly shots in the United States.
Preparing a sufficient supply of upcoming drugs is also central to Lilly’s efforts to maintain its dominance in the booming GLP-1 market. The company gained a majority share in this sector for the first time last year, surpassing Novo.
But the Danish manufacturer hopes to close the gap with the launch this month of the first-ever GLP-1 obesity pill, which has already racked up thousands of prescriptions in the United States. Lilly has its own pill, ouforglipron, which could be approved and launched later this year.
Drugmakers have been scrambling to increase production in the United States after President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the United States. But concerns about those potential tariffs have eased following voluntary drug pricing deals with Trump in recent months that exempt companies — including Lilly and Novo — from taxes for three years.
Eli Lilly said the Pennsylvania site will create 850 jobs in the region, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and laboratory technicians, as well as 2,000 construction jobs.