Eli Lilly invests to increase Mounjaro, Zepbound supply

Eli Lilly on Friday mentioned it’s investing one other $5.3 billion in a producing plant in Lebanon, Indiana, to spice up provide of its extremely widespread weight reduction drug Zepbound, diabetes remedy Mounjaro and different medicines.

Demand for these remedies has far outpaced provide over the previous yr, spurring shortages within the U.S. and forcing the pharmaceutical large to speculate closely to scale up its manufacturing.

That new dedication brings Eli Lilly’s complete funding on the web site to $9 billion. That makes it Eli Lilly’s largest manufacturing funding in its almost 150-year historical past, the corporate’s CEO David Ricks mentioned in an announcement.

Eli Lilly expects the Lebanon web site to start out making medicines towards the tip of 2026, and scale up operations by means of 2028. The corporate first introduced its plans to construct new Indiana websites in 2022. 

The plant will particularly enhance Eli Lilly’s capability to fabricate the energetic ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro, known as tirzepatide. The corporate refers to these remedies as incretin medication, which mimic sure intestine hormones to suppress an individual’s urge for food and regulate blood sugar. 

“This multi-site campus will make our newest medicines, together with Zepbound and Mounjaro, assist pipeline progress and leverage the newest know-how and automation for optimum effectivity, security and high quality management,” Ricks mentioned in an announcement.

Eli Lilly mentioned 900 staff, together with engineers, scientists, working personnel and lab technicians, will workers the location when it’s totally operational.

The corporate has spent greater than $18 billion to construct, increase and buy manufacturing vegetation within the U.S. and Europe since 2020.

Eli Lilly has a number of manufacturing websites both “ramping up or below building,” Chief Monetary Officer Anat Ashkenazi informed traders throughout an earnings name final month. That features the Lebanon plant and one other Indiana web site, two areas in North Carolina, one in Eire, one in Germany and a seventh web site the corporate just lately acquired from Nexus Prescription drugs. 

Buyers cheered Eli Lilly after the corporate hiked its full-year income outlook by $2 billion, partially attributable to confidence about elevated manufacturing of Zepbound, Mounjaro and different incretin medication for the remainder of the yr.

“Now that we’re 4 months into the yr, we have now better visibility into that, into these nodes of capability and really feel extra assured,” Ashkenazi mentioned through the name.