Eli Lilly has shared plans to invest a further $4.5bn into its manufacturing presence in Indiana, taking the pharma company’s total investment into the state to $21bn since 2020.
Through this commitment, Lilly will expand operations across two of the three sites on its Lebanon campus – including the company’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production facility and its dedicated genetic medicines manufacturing centre, which opened on 6 May.
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The API facility, which currently produces Lilly’s best-selling tirzepatide franchise, will now be tailored to manufacture the company’s newly approved oral weight loss drug, Foundayo (orforglipron), which is currently in the throes of its US launch. Prior to Foundayo’s market debut, Lilly made several manufacturing investments in the US, China and Europe to keep up with potential demand for the drug, while opting to create a stockpile to further diminish the risk of shortages.
Alongside Foundayo production, Lilly’s API facility will also manufacture the active ingredient in its “triple-G” agonist, retatrutide, which is currently in late-stage trials for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Lilly says that the Lebanon API site will open in 2027, and once operational, the company claims it will be the largest API production site in US history.
This expansion comes as the Trump administration looks to onshore drug manufacturing to the US to bolster the pharmaceutical supply chain.
Lilly backs deal-led genetic medicines push
As Lilly waits for its multiple partnerships, licensing deals and acquisitions in the genetic medicines space to bear their potential fruits, the Indiana-based pharma has opened its first production centre dedicated to genetic medicines.
According to the company, the Lebanon Advanced Therapies site will manufacture a “full spectrum” of drugs in this class, with operations spanning from research-stage development to both the clinical and commercial scales.
Through this expansion, Lilly will implement new process designs and technologies, potentially focused on artificial intelligence (AI), given its heavy investments into AI as of late.
While Lilly did not explicitly disclose what it will produce at the site, the company does have several gene therapies in development. This includes ixoberogene soroparvovec, which the company is currently evaluating in a Phase III wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) trial. Lilly absorbed the drug through its October 2025 Adverum buyout.
Lilly forges on with rapid expansion
Lilly’s $4.5bn Indiana pledge comes as the company continues its dealmaking spree, which has seen the company ink several drug discovery and development, M&A and licensing deals to bolster its pipeline.
These deals come amid the backdrop of a successful run for Lilly, which saw another quarter of strong sales growth for its cardiometabolic portfolio in Q1 2026.
In 2026 alone, Eli Lilly has signed six M&A deals, with the most recent being its $2.3bn acquisition of blood cancer specialist, Ajax Therapeutics.
