INDIANAPOLIS (dpa-AFX) - Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly (LLY) has announced plans to invest more than $3.5 billion to construct a new manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.
This expansion is aimed at increasing production capacity for Lilly's next-generation obesity treatments.
The new plant is expected to play a crucial role in manufacturing future weight-loss drugs, including retatrutide. This experimental therapy has demonstrated the highest weight loss results in a late-stage clinical trial to date.
The project marks Lilly's fourth major U.S. manufacturing investment announced over the past year. In February 2025, the company committed at least $27 billion to new domestic facilities, on top of $23 billion invested since 2020.
Construction of the Pennsylvania site is expected to begin this year, with operations targeted to start in 2031.
Retatrutide is viewed as a cornerstone of Lilly's long-term obesity strategy, complementing its blockbuster injection Zepbound and an upcoming oral obesity drug.
The treatment targets three gut hormones, which researchers believe could help patients with severe obesity achieve greater weight loss than current therapies. Lilly plans to release data from seven additional Phase 3 trials on retatrutide this year.
The new facility is expected to create approximately 850 permanent jobs and roughly 2,000 construction jobs, strengthening Lilly's manufacturing footprint as demand for GLP-1 obesity drugs continues to surge.
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