Eli Lilly to build $3.5B plant in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley to produce weight-loss drugs

Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. announced Friday plans to build a $3.5 billion manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. The expansion will boost domestic production as the company sees growing sales of its obesity and diabetes treatments.

The company said the new plant in Fogelsville, just outside Allentown, will make injectable drugs and devices, including producing weight-loss drug retatrutide, a once-a-week injectable drug that is still being studied and not available for public use.

The new plant is expected to bring 850 jobs to the area, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians.

Construction is expected to begin this year and finish in 2031, it said. Construction is anticipated to generate 2,000 construction jobs. 

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, maker of weight-loss treatment Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro, is in the midst of a broader domestic expansion that includes new plants it has announced in Texas, Virginia and Alabama. Another facility is under construction in Indiana.

Sales of Zepbound and Mounjaro boosted the company's third-quarter profit to a record $5.58 billion. Third-quarter revenue was $17.6 billion, up more than 50% from the same quarter a year earlier.

Zepbound and Mounjaro alone accounted for $10 billion in sales in the company's third quarter.