Eli Lilly and Company The company said Friday it will spend more than $3.5 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to help produce the next generation of obesity drugs.

These include a high-profile experimental drug called retarglutide, which has Shows highest weight loss results yet for any treatment in late-stage trials.

It is the pharmaceutical giant’s fourth facility in a series of new investment plans in the United States. Eli Lilly and Company announced in February 2025 will cost at least $27 billion Building new domestic manufacturing facilities has seen investment increase by $23 billion since 2020.

Thursday, President Donald Trump Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told him the drugmaker aims to Build six factories in the United States But Eli Lilly has not confirmed those plans.

The company said Friday it expects to start construction on the Pennsylvania plant this year and be operational in 2031.

Increasing production capacity for upcoming weight loss treatments is critical. Retarglutide is seen as a key pillar of Eli Lilly’s long-term obesity strategy, following the popular injectable Zepbound and its upcoming weight-loss drug.

Some health experts say retarglutide, which targets three gut hormones instead of one or two, could help severely obese patients, allowing them to benefit from more effective weight loss than existing injections. Eli Lilly plans to release data from seven other Phase 3 trials of the drug this year.

The company and its main competitors, Novo Nordiskhas invested heavily in increasing production capacity after existing weekly injections faced supply shortages in the United States

Preparing sufficient supplies for upcoming drugs is also central to Eli Lilly’s efforts to maintain its dominance in the booming GLP-1 market. The company surpassed Novo for the first time last year to gain majority share in the field.

But the Danish drugmaker hopes to launch The first GLP-1 pill This month, in response to the obesity problem, we have Accumulated thousands of U.S. prescriptions. Eli Lilly has its own drug, orforglipron, that may be approved and launched later this year.

Drugmakers have been scrambling to boost U.S. production following the president’s threats Donald Trump But concerns about those potential tariffs have eased in recent months following a voluntary drug pricing agreement with Trump that exempted companies including Eli Lilly and Novo from tariffs for three years.

Eli Lilly said the Pennsylvania plant will bring 850 jobs to the area, including engineers, scientists, operators and laboratory technicians, as well as 2,000 construction jobs.