Eli Lilly on Tuesday said it will spend $6 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama, to help boost production of its closely watched experimental obesity pill and other drugs.Â
It is the third facility in a string of new planned U.S. investments by the drugmaker. Eli Lilly announced in February that it would spend at least $27 billion to build four new domestic manufacturing plants, adding to $23 billion in previous investments since 2020.
The company said it expects construction of the Alabama plant to start in 2026 and for it to be completed in 2032.Â
"Today's investment continues the onshoring of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production, strengthening supply chain resilience and reliable access to medicines for patients in the U.S.," said Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks in a release.Â
That added production capacity for Eli Lilly's obesity pill, orforglipron, is crucial as the company races to file for its approval and tries to maintain its dominance in the booming market for GLP-1s. The company and its chief rival, Novo Nordisk, faced supply shortages for their existing weekly injections after demand skyrocketed in the U.S. in recent years, though they have managed to alleviate those issues.
Eli Lily's pill in November won a priority review voucher from the Food and Drug Administration, which will significantly speed up the regulator's assessment of the drug to potentially a few months.Â
Drugmakers have been scrambling to boost their production in the U.S. after threats by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. But concerns about those potential tariffs have eased following recent drug pricing deals with Trump that exempt companies from the levies.
Eli Lilly said the Alabama site will bring 450 jobs to the area, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians, as well as 3,000 construction jobs.Â