Eli Lilly has again upped the ante in scaling up its manufacturing footprint, this time revealing an investment totaling $1.8 billion to expand production capacity at two plants in Ireland.
At its plant in Limerick, which is under construction, Lilly said it will use the new funding to increase its production of biologic active ingredients, including those for its new Alzheimer’s disease treatment Kisunla, which was endorsed by the FDA two months ago.
The new outlay brings the company’s total investment in the Limerick facility to $2 billion. The first $1 billion was earmarked in March 2023, when Lilly broke ground on the site. The upgrade will add 150 employees to the facility, bringing its projected head count to 450. Production at the site is expected to begin in 2026.
Also on Thursday, Lilly unveiled a newly completed, $800 million expansion of its manufacturing site two hours south in Kinsale. The facility began producing Lilly’s megablockbuster tirzepatide diabetes and obesity treatments Mounjaro and Zepbound last year. This was the first time the company has discussed the expansion of the plant.
“These investments will boost the production of some of our medicines, helping millions of people with diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer's disease live the healthiest lives possible,” Edgardo Hernandez, who heads up Lilly’s manufacturing operations, said in a release. “We won’t stop there. These state-of-the-art facilities will also be equipped to support our promising pipeline molecules of the future.
The new investments build on Lilly’s massive manufacturing push. Since 2020, the company has committed more than $20 billion to build, expand and acquire manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe.
Four months ago, Lilly revealed that it would invest an additional $5.3 billion to build a massive manufacturing complex 30 miles from its Indianapolis headquarters, in Lebanon, Indiana. That expenditure will boost production of active pharmaceutical ingredient for its injected tirzepatide products and brings Lilly’s total spend on the 600-acre campus to $9 billion.
Lilly also has a $2.5 billion plant under construction in Alzey, Germany, which is expected to begin production in 2027. Additionally, the drugmaker projects its manufacturing site in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina to become fully operational in 2027.
Much of the recent wave of investment is an effort to meet the overwhelming demand for Mounjaro and Zepbound. The company is competing in the diabetes and obesity market with Novo Nordisk.
Lilly’s presence in Ireland spans nearly five decades. In addition to its manufacturing facilities, Lilly’s campus in Cork has quadrupled its head count since 2019, with more than 2,000 employees expected by the end of 2024, more than half of whom are working in clinical R&D.
The funding for the Kinsale facility has allowed the company to establish a digital-first process that integrates continuous manufacturing technology to create a new platform for creating complex peptides, Lilly said.