Eli Lilly is planning a $4.5 billion drug foundry to promote innovation in drug manufacturing

Eli Lilly's research and development has produced innovations such as metabolic drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, both discovered in the company's laboratories. Lilly is now committing $4.5 billion to its own innovations in drug manufacturing.

The pharmaceutical giant announced plans on Tuesday for a new facility called the Lilly Medicine Foundry, which it says will explore new ways to make drugs. The site will also allow the company to expand manufacturing of experimental drugs for clinical trials. The Medicine Foundry will be located in the LEAP Innovation District in Lebanon, Indiana, northwest of Indianapolis, where Lilly is headquartered. The company expects this new production site to open in 2027.

Manufacturing has become a key area of ​​investment for Lilly as demand for its new drugs for metabolic disorders continues to rise. The company reported revenue of $20 billion in the first half of this year, up 31% compared to the same period in 2023. Lilly attributed much of that revenue growth to rising sales of diabetes drug Mounjaro and obesity drug Zepbound back. Both are peptides that are expensive to produce. Lilly has poured billions of dollars into expanding existing facilities and building new drug manufacturing sites in Europe and the United States

Medicine Foundry's research will not be limited to peptide drugs. Lilly says this facility will have a flexible design that enables the production of different types of drugs, including small molecules, biologics and nucleic acid therapies. The site will support the production of experimental drugs for clinical trials, Lilly said. In addition, new technologies developed at the Medicine Foundry will be transferred to the company's other sites once drugs are ready for mass production.

The Medicine Foundry's location at LEAP brings another Lilly facility to the county, a 9,000-acre innovation center about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis that will become home to corporate campuses, advanced manufacturing and research and development operations across a variety of industries. Lilly has approximately 600 hectares of land at LEAP. Last year, the pharmaceutical giant broke ground on a production facility that will produce the ingredients for medications, such as its genetic medicines. Last May, the company announced a $5.3 billion expansion of its plans at the LEAP site, increasing capacity to produce the key pharmaceutical ingredient at both Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Lilly said Indiana is making infrastructure improvements for roads, water and utilities. The state is also offering the company economic incentives tied to investment and employment targets at the Medicine Foundry, which is expected to bring 400 full-time jobs to Lebanon.

“As we accelerate our work to discover new medicines for the most challenging diseases, we continue to invest in cutting-edge infrastructure to support our growing pipeline,” Lilly CEO David Ricks said in a prepared statement. “This new complex will not only deliver high-quality medicines for our clinical trials, but will also further strengthen our process development and expand our manufacturing capabilities to accelerate the delivery of next-generation medicines to patients around the world.”

Illustration: Eli Lilly