Lilly to invest another $5.3B in Lebanon site to meet overwhelming demand for Mounjaro, Zepbound

Eli Lilly and Co. (IBJ photo)

Faced with overwhelming demand for its diabetes treatment Mounjaro and weight-loss treatment Zepbound, Indianapolis-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. said Friday morning it plans to invest another $5.3 billion in its brand-new Boone County manufacturing complex.

That amount will more than double Lilly’s total investment in the site, increasing it from $3.7 billion to $9 billion. The company said that amount would make it the largest investment in active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing of synthetic medicines in U.S. history.

The announcement was made Friday morning at the Global Economic Summit at the Indiana Convention Center, where Lilly CEO Dave Ricks was joined by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Lilly said the extra investment at the nearly 600-acre site in Lebanon will enhance its capacity to manufacture tirzepatide, the active ingredient in both Mounjaro and Zepbound. It was not immediately clear, however, how much manufacturing capacity will increase at the complex, or whether the company plans to add manufacturing lines.

The Lebanon campus is currently planned to contain two large manufacturing sites to make active ingredients and therapies for a variety of disease areas, including diabetes, weight loss and cancer.

“This multi-site campus will make our latest medicines, including Zepbound and Mounjaro, support pipeline growth and leverage the latest technology and automation for maximum efficiency, safety and quality control,” Ricks said in written remarks.

He added: “Importantly, we are investing in our home state of Indiana, creating high-wage, advanced manufacturing, engineering and science jobs for hundreds of current and future Hoosier families.”

Lilly broke ground last year at the site, which is within Indiana’s LEAP Research and Innovation District. Construction is taking shape, with plans to erect 12 buildings, several of which will be equipped to make drug ingredients and therapies in highly-automated, advanced manufacturing systems. LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration Advanced Pace.

The company expects to begin making medicines in Lebanon toward the end of 2026–with operations scaling up through 2028. The site is about 35 miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis, home to Lilly’s headquarters and technical center.

Lilly said the new investment will allow it to hire 200 more workers at the complex, including engineers, scientists, and lab technicians, for a total of 900 full-time workers when it is fully operational. That doesn’t include more than 5,000 construction jobs during the project’s development.

Gov. Eric Holcomb praised Lilly for its latest investment decision.

“As an international company, headquartered in Indiana, Lilly had a world of options to consider before making this investment, and choosing Indiana once again reinforces the incredible environment we’ve cultivated and the talented workforce we have to carry Lilly’s success forward,” Holcomb said in written remarks.

Lilly has been swamped with overwhelming demand from patients, physicians and pharmacists for Mounjaro and Zepbound, two huge hits that caught the company unaware. In recent months, the company has faced a blizzard of complaints about its supply, which hasn’t been able to keep up with demand. The Food and Drug Administration lists both drugs in its drug shortages database.

The drugs are popular for suppressing appetite and slowing stomach emptying. They have helped patients in clinical trials lose up to 26% of their body weight.

The drugs, administered at home once a week by injection, work by using a chain of 39 amino acids to mimic the action of two natural hormones known as GIP and GLP-1 that perform those tasks.

Lilly said last month that “exceptionally strong demand” for Mounjaro and Zepbound helped boost first-quarter company profit to $2.24 billion on revenue of $8.77 billion. Mounjaro moved to first place among all its medicines by sales.

But the company warned that supply would remain “quite tight in the near term as well as the midterm.” Lilly officials have not specified when the shortages would improve.

Since 2020, Lilly has committed more than $16 billion to develop new manufacturing sites in the U.S. and Europe. New locations outside Indiana include Research Triangle Park and Concord, North Carolina; Limerick, Ireland; and Alzey, Germany.

Separately, the company has invested an additional $1.2 billion to update existing manufacturing facilities in Indianapolis and recently acquired an injectable manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, from Nexus Pharmaceuticals. Together, these manufacturing investments total more than $18 billion.

To support Lilly’s expansion project, Indiana officials said the state will offer a raft of incentives, such as road improvements, water, electric and other utilities, as well as workforce development commitments and certain economic incentives tied to the company’s achievement of investment and employment goals. The financial value of those incentives has not yet been spelled out.

Holcomb said the state’s workforce development support includes the contribution of land, pending approval, for the construction of a learning and training center that will be part of the larger LEAP industrial development, along with a commitment to work with Lilly to raise capital for its completion.

Lilly previously has announced financial support for scholarship and training programs with Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College, along with a training center at the 16 Tech Innovation District, led by BioCrossroads, a not-for-profit that promotes the state’s life sciences sectors.

“Lilly continues to play a transformational role in shaping Indiana’s opportunity economy,” Holcomb added,” and I couldn’t be more proud about their pole position leadership in developing the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon, Indiana.”