Lilly to build $6.5 billion API manufacturing facility in Texas

Eli Lilly and Company has announced its plan to build a new $6.5 billion manufacturing facility at Generation Park in Houston, Texas. The planned next-generation synthetic medicine active pharmaceutical product (API) facility is the second of four new U.S. sites Lilly will announce this year. 

The facility will focus on manufacturing the company’s pipeline of small molecule medicines across therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience. It is expected to be operational within five years.

Lilly will bring 615 new high-wage jobs to the Greater Houston area, including highly skilled engineers, scientists, operations personnel, and lab technicians. The company also expects to generate 4,000 construction jobs as the site is being built and brought online.

Importantly, the site will be among those that will manufacture orforglipron, Lilly’s first oral, small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, which the company expects to submit to global regulatory agencies for obesity by the end of this year.

“Our new Houston site will enhance Lilly’s ability to manufacture orforglipron at scale and, if approved, help fulfill the medicine’s potential as a metabolic health treatment for tens of millions of people worldwide who prefer the ease of a pill that can be taken without food and water restrictions,” said David A. Ricks, Lilly chair and CEO. “This significant U.S. investment and onshoring of our API production capabilities will ensure faster, more secure access to orforglipron and to other life-changing medicines of the future.”