An indication with the corporate emblem sits outdoors of the headquarters of Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 17, 2024.
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Eli Lilly stated on Thursday it can make investments $3 billion to develop the manufacturing plant it purchased in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin earlier this yr, because it scrambles to satisfy hovering demand for its weight-loss and diabetes medication.
The new funding within the manufacturing unit, which it acquired from Nexus Pharmaceuticals, will assist enhance manufacturing of Lilly’s highly effective weight-loss drug Zepbound in addition to its diabetes therapies and different medicines, the corporate stated.
“Today’s announcement represents our single largest U.S. manufacturing funding outdoors our house state of Indiana and can add to our skill to develop capability to make each our current and future pipeline of medicines,” stated Edgardo Hernandez, Lilly’s president of worldwide manufacturing.
Zepbound and Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro, each identified chemically as tirzepatide, have been in scarcity within the U.S. for a lot of this yr. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration eliminated tirzepatide from its scarcity listing earlier this yr however is reconsidering that call following a lawsuit from an business group representing compounding pharmacies that make and promote variations of the drug not accredited by the FDA.
Zepbound was launched within the U.S. in late 2023. More than 5.2 million prescriptions have since been written for the drug, in line with knowledge from IQVIA shared by an analyst.
Lilly stated it has dedicated a complete of greater than $23 billion to constructing, increasing and shopping for manufacturing websites since 2020. The acquisition, enlargement, and extra purchases of land and the adjoining warehouse in Wisconsin convey Lilly’s complete deliberate funding within the website to $4 billion, it stated.
Lilly, which has grow to be the world’s most respected healthcare firm value over $790 billion, stated it plans to start out building on the enlargement subsequent yr, and beforehand stated it expects manufacturing on the facility to start on the finish of 2025.
The firm stated it expects so as to add 750 jobs to the Wisconsin plant, which already has greater than 100, together with operators, technicians, engineers and scientists.
Danish rival Novo Nordisk has additionally invested billions in manufacturing to ramp up provide of its well-liked weight-loss drug Wegovy, asserting it will take over three websites from contract producer Catalent for $11 billion earlier this yr.
