Indianapolis-based drug maker Eli Lilly and Co. on Wednesday announced it plans to spend more than $1.2 billion to expand and update its manufacturing site in Puerto Rico to increase production of oral medications, including its highly anticipated GLP-1 pill.
The project at the Lilly del Caribe facility in Carolina, Puerto Rico, will add about 100 manufacturing jobs and 1,000 jobs during construction. The investment is part of the company’s effort to boost its U.S. manufacturing capacity. (Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.)
Lilly said the improved facility will make orforglipron, Lilly’s first small-molecule GLP-1 pill, which the company expects to receive regulatory approval for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and obesity by the end of the year. The facility will also produce oral medications for divisions including neuroscience, oncology and immunology.
Upgrades to the facility include increased automation and material flow, paperless manufacturing, increased process analysis and spray-dry dispersion, which allows oral medicine to be effectively absorbed.
The company expects to start work on the project next year, with production starting by the end of 2028.
“After 60 years, Lilly de Caribe continues to play an important role in marking life-changing medicines for people in the U.S. and beyond,” Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice president of Lilly manufacturing operations, said in a written statement. “Our continued investment capacity, infrastructure, advanced technologies and highly specialized jobs will further cement the site’s significance in Lilly’s global manufacturing network.”
As part of its $50 billion capital investment commitment to U.S. manufacturing that began in 2020, Lilly has said it will spend $27 billion on four new manufacturing facilities in the United States. Already this year the company announced a new $6.5 billion plant in Texas and a $5 billion plant in Virginia. Lilly said it would announce two additional U.S. locations in the coming months.
“Lilly’s multimillion-dollar expansion is a resounding vote of confidence in our people, our infrastructure and our long-term competitiveness within the U.S. supply chain,” Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón said in a written statement.
“It demonstrates that global companies can continue to grow and thrive here,” she said, “while Puerto Rico contributes in a meaningful way to the resilience of the nation’s most critical industries.”