Eli Lilly has unveiled a $27bn investment in US manufacturing facilities as the pharmaceutical industry prepares for the threat of tariffs and mounts a charm offensive aimed at President Donald Trump’s new administration.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker announced plans to plough money into four new US production plants, more than doubling its investments announced since 2020 to $50bn.
The investment, announced by Eli Lilly at an event held near the White House on Wednesday, marks the latest effort by the pharmaceutical company to ingratiate itself with the Trump administration.
Drugmakers are grappling with the threat of tariffs and the appointment of vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr as the top US health official.
Eli Lilly’s announcement follows similar headline-grabbing investments from American companies looking to cosy up to Trump.
On Monday, iPhone maker Apple announced a $500bn investment package over the next four years, most of which was day-to-day spending. OpenAI also unveiled plans last month to invest $100bn, rising to as much as $500bn, in its Stargate project.
Construction at the Eli Lilly sites will begin this year and the plants will start making medicines within five years, creating 10,000 construction jobs and a further 3,000 permanent jobs.
Dave Ricks, Eli Lilly’s chief executive, credited Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from his first administration with inspiring the company’s push to have manufacturing facilities in the US, adding that it was “essential these policies are extended this year”.
“We believe that our investments in America and our nation’s workforce will spark a significant ripple effect,” added Ricks.
Much of Eli Lilly’s recent investments have been focused on meeting the ballooning demand for its blockbuster diabetes and weight loss medications Mounjaro and Zepbound, part of a new class of drugs known as GLP-1s.
Three of the four sites will help to develop active pharmaceutical ingredients, while the fourth will boost “fill-and-finish” manufacturing capacity for injectable medicines.
Eli Lilly, the world’s largest drugmaker by market value, is still in discussions with state authorities over where the new sites will be located. Recently, it began construction work on a plant at North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park as well as at a new innovation district near the group’s headquarters in Indiana.
Last week, Ricks — alongside Merck’s chief executive Robert Davis, Pfizer head Albert Bourla and Stephen Ubl, who runs industry lobbying group PhRMA — met Trump in the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. The president told the executives to prioritise onshoring manufacturing or face tariffs.
Trump previously said pharmaceutical imports could be subjected to tariffs in the “neighbourhood of 25 per cent”, alongside similar import taxes on semiconductors and automobiles.