Drugmaker Lilly plans to spend another $4.5 billion on improvements in manufacturing and drug development

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eli Lilly is investing another $4.5 billion to expand production and development as the drugmaker rakes in billions from sales of new products.

The diabetes treatment maker said Wednesday it will build a new advanced manufacturing and drug development center a few miles from its Indianapolis headquarters.

The company said its Lilly Medicine Foundry will allow it to both explore new ways to make drugs and build production for clinical trials. Work on the site will begin next year.

Lilly will add the center to a site in Lebanon, Indiana, where the company is already spending about $9 billion to improve manufacturing. The company said in May that it was also expanding there to produce more doses of its popular weight loss and diabetes medications, Zepbound and Mounjaro.

Those drugs have brought new revenue to Lilly and led the company in August to push its full-year forecast beyond Wall Street's expectations.

Lilly shares rose to a new all-time high of $972.53 during the month.

Eli Lilly and Co. also said in September that it would spend $1 billion to expand production at a site in Limerick, Ireland.