Eli Lilly breaks ground on $3.5B Pennsylvania plant for unapproved diet drug

Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks stood in the rain Thursday with Gov. Josh Shapiro to break ground on a $3.5 billion, 925,000-square-foot manufacturing campus in Upper Macungie Township, a Lehigh Valley site the company says will churn out retatrutide for the world. The injectable is still in Phase 3 trials and has no FDA approval. The plant is slated to open in 2031 — sooner if Ricks gets his way.

Ricks called the drug a single molecule that flips on three of the body's hormone receptors at once, hitting metabolism, blood sugar and brain activity. That trio of targets earned it the nickname "GLP-3." Trial results so far show more weight loss than existing drugs while holding onto more lean muscle mass, and the weekly shot has built a social media following long before any prescription exists.

Lilly is banking on a list of conditions well past obesity: type 2 diabetes, knee osteoarthritis pain, moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea, chronic low back pain, cardiovascular and renal outcomes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. "A promising medicine only helps people if we can make it at scale," Ricks said, calling the Lehigh Valley an export site. The company's own website warns that illicit retatrutide is already on the black market, potentially laced with contaminants or the wrong active ingredient entirely.

The facility will lean on machine learning, AI and digitally integrated systems from day one, which Ricks described as among the most technically advanced in the industry. Lilly expects 2,000 construction jobs and roughly 850 permanent life sciences positions once it's running. "It takes people, engineers and scientists, operators to run the lines and lab technicians to test and ensure that quality," Ricks said.

Shapiro said the project is the largest life sciences investment in Pennsylvania history and the biggest economic development deal the Lehigh Valley has ever seen. He said his administration has delivered every permit Lilly has sought on time, some months ahead of schedule, and promised the rest will land well before a 2031 opening. "We will make sure we match your energy with our speed," he told Ricks.

The region's economic streak extends past pharma. Chobani is spending $1 billion to renovate and expand a plant three miles away that another company had operated, growing it from 300 jobs to 900, local officials said.