Drugmaker Eli Lilly announces new plant in Pennsylvania as part of broader domestic expansion

Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. says it'll build a $3.5 billion manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, as the company expands domestic production and capitalizes on surging sales of obesity and diabetes treatments

Eli Lilly-Manufacturing (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. said Friday that it will build a $3.5 billion manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, as the company expands domestic production and capitalizes on surging sales of obesity and diabetes treatments.

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.

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.

Construction was expected to begin this year and finish in 2031, it said.

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.