FOGELSVILLE, Pa. — Eli Lilly and Co. broke ground Thursday on a $3.5 billion plant in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley that will make injectable obesity medicines, including the experimental drug retatrutide, the company said.
Lilly expects the facility to open by 2031 and create 850 jobs for engineers, scientists, laboratory technicians and operations staff. Construction will employ about 2,000 people, according to its Nov. 12 announcement.
Retatrutide is still being studied and cannot legally be sold or marketed for human use. Designed as a once-weekly injection, it activates three hormone receptors: GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon. Lilly has taken the drug into Phase 3 trials.
The trials cover obesity, type 2 diabetes and several other conditions. Among them are knee osteoarthritis pain, sleep apnea and chronic low back pain. Lilly cautioned that regulatory approval is not guaranteed and that retatrutide may not prove safe and effective.
“Obesity is one of the biggest health challenges of our time, and the science to treat it is moving quickly,”
Jobs and community funding
Lilly has begun hiring in the Lehigh Valley. The company calls the 850 expected positions high-wage jobs. Its release did not list salary ranges.
Gov. Josh Shapiro credited Pennsylvania’s workforce, research institutions and infrastructure with helping secure the project. Sen. Dave McCormick also welcomed the investment and the manufacturing jobs it is expected to bring.
The company plans to give up to $1 million over five years to the Upper Macungie Township Community Fund. The money would support a proposed program at the Upper Macungie Community Center focused on nutrition, access to fresh food, health resources and activities for local families.
Lilly is also seeking LEED Gold certification for the plant, an environmental building standard. The certification is a target, rather than an award the facility has already received.
Part of a broader U.S. expansion
The Pennsylvania project falls within Lilly’s $50 billion expansion of U.S. medicine production. It is one of 10 new domestic manufacturing sites the company has announced since 2020. The program also includes Lilly’s $5 billion Goochland County plant in Virginia.
Four of those sites will make injectable medicines and devices: the Lehigh Valley facility, two North Carolina plants in Research Triangle Park and Concord, and a plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Five others will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients, with sites in Richmond, Virginia; Huntsville, Alabama; Houston; and two in Lebanon, Indiana. One of the Lebanon facilities, Lilly Medicine Foundry, will also develop production methods and make medicines for clinical trials.
A separate Lebanon site will produce genetic medicines. For the Lehigh Valley plant, the projected jobs and 2031 opening remain company expectations as construction gets underway.