Eli Lilly and Company broke ground on a $3.5 billion manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

The site joins nine other new U.S. manufacturing sites Eli Lilly has announced since 2020, and is one of four among them dedicated to injectable medicines and devices. The project is part of the company’s $50 billion push to expand medicine production in the U.S., and the Lehigh Valley site is expected to add capacity for the next generation of obesity treatments, including retatrutide, a first-in-class investigational GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon triple hormone receptor agonist.¹

David A. Ricks, chair and chief executive officer, Lilly, ties the investment directly to the pace of innovation in obesity care. “Obesity is one of the biggest health challenges of our time, and the science to treat it is moving quickly,” says Ricks. “Retatrutide is one of several next-generation medicines we’re developing that could help millions more people living with obesity, type 2 diabetes, or both. This $3.5 billion investment means we’ll be able to make these medicines in Pennsylvania for people here at home and around the world.”

What will the Lehigh Valley site produce, and when will it open?

The Lehigh Valley site, located in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, was originally announced earlier in the year in February, and is expected to be operational by 2031. The site will add manufacturing capacity for next-generation obesity treatments, including retatrutide, which Lilly is studying in several Phase III clinical trials evaluating its potential efficacy and safety in obesity and overweight with at least one weight-related medical problem, type 2 diabetes, knee osteoarthritis pain, moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea, chronic low back pain, cardiovascular outcomes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.²

Retatrutide is a single molecule that activates the body’s receptors for glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and glucagon, and it remains an investigational molecule that cannot legally be sold or marketed for human use.²

How does this fit into Lilly’s broader U.S. manufacturing buildout?

Lehigh Valley is one of ten U.S. sites Eli Lilly has announced since 2020. Five of those sites will produce active pharmaceutical ingredient: facilities in Richmond, Virginia; Huntsville, Alabama; Houston, Texas; and two sites in Lebanon, Indiana.¹ Four sites, including Lehigh Valley, will make injectable medicines and manufacture devices; the others in that group are located in Research Triangle Park and Concord, North Carolina, and Kenosha, Wisconsin.¹ One additional site, Lebanon Advanced Therapies in Lebanon, Indiana, will make genetic medicines.

The investment reflects a broader principle Eli Lilly has been building its manufacturing strategy around. Sarah O’Keeffe, Ph.D., group vice president of Eli Lilly’s product research and development organization, told Pharmaceutical Executive earlier this year that “every day we can take out of that journey is a day we can get a medicine to a patient.”

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro sees the investment as a milestone for the state’s life sciences sector. “Today marks another historic milestone in Pennsylvania’s thriving life sciences sector and reinforces my Administration’s commitment to advancing innovation, strengthening the economy, and creating good-paying jobs across the Commonwealth.”

What jobs will the facility create?

Eli Lilly is currently hiring in the Lehigh Valley and expects the new facility to create 850 high-wage jobs, including roles for engineers, scientists, operations personnel, and lab technicians, along with approximately 2,000 construction jobs as the site is built and brought online.¹ Jeff Fleischaker, chairman, Upper Macungie Township Board of Supervisors, welcomes the project on behalf of the local community. “We are thrilled to be able to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Lilly facility in Upper Macungie Township,” says Fleischaker.

How will the facility operate, and what is Lilly doing for the surrounding community?

By pairing a highly skilled workforce with advanced technologies and specialized manufacturing, the Lehigh Valley site is intended to help support a reliable supply of safe, high-quality medicines. It will use state-of-the-art technologies, including machine learning, AI, digitally integrated systems, and advanced data analytics, to drive right-first-time execution, with digital automation embedded throughout the site to streamline operations.¹

The facility will be built and operated to what the company describes as the highest standards for safety, quality, and environmental stewardship, and the site is targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. As part of its community commitment, Lilly and the Upper Macungie Township Community Fund are working together on an anticipated new initiative at the Upper Macungie Community Center. Lilly will provide up to $1 million over five years to the Upper Macungie Township Community Fund to support development of a new quality-of-life program for Lehigh Valley families, with a focus on nutrition and healthy living, fresh food access, health resources, and community programming.

Sources

1. Lilly breaks ground in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley on a $3.5 billion site to make next-generation obesity medicines, the latest of 10 new U.S. sites since 2020 Eli Lilly & Company November 12, 2026, https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-breaks-ground-pennsylvanias-lehigh-valley-35-billion-site
2. What to know about retatrutide: An investigational triple hormone receptor agonist Eli Lilly & Company October 28, 2026, https://www.lilly.com/news/stories/what-to-know-about-retatrutide