AMSTERDAM – Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N) said on Monday it will invest $3 billion to build a new manufacturing plant in the Netherlands, expanding capacity for its experimental weight-loss pill orforglipron and other oral treatments as it races to meet soaring demand.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker is ramping up production of its key metabolic drugs, having committed billions of dollars in recent months to expand its global manufacturing footprint. The new facility in the Leiden Bio Science Park will be used to produce orforglipron, for which Lilly plans to begin global regulatory submissions by year-end.
The company said last week that orforglipron met most criteria for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration priority voucher, a move that could shorten the regulatory review to as little as one to two months from the standard 10 to 12 months.
“The new European facility would be also used to make oral medicines for diseases related to cardiometabolism, neurology, oncology and immunology,” Lilly said in a statement.
The plant, located in Katwijk, Netherlands, is expected to create 500 skilled manufacturing jobs and about 1,500 positions in construction work, with building slated to start next year.
The announcement follows last week’s news of a more than $1.2 billion expansion of Lilly’s site in Carolina, Puerto Rico, also dedicated to producing orforglipron. That investment is part of a previously announced $50 billion U.S. manufacturing push.
Lilly has said it also plans to announce two new U.S. manufacturing sites in the coming months. The drugmaker’s existing manufacturing network in Europe includes sites in France, Ireland, Italy and Spain.