Eli Lilly It will spend $4.5 billion to build a center aimed at finding better ways to manufacture its drugs.
The facility, called Lilly Medicine Foundry, will house the development of new manufacturing methods with a focus on efficiency. It's a strategy that's already paying off with Lilly's obesity and weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, and one Lilly wants to propel the rest of its product line.
The foundry serves a dual purpose: researching new manufacturing procedures, then putting them into practice while producing drugs for clinical trials. Lilly says the facility will be the first of its kind to combine research and production in one location.
“The idea is to take molecules off the bench in the lab to measure drugs in the pharmacy, and this R&D site will do that work,” Eli Lilly CEO David Rex said in an interview from the company's headquarters in Indianapolis. .
The centre, scheduled to open in late 2027, will be equipped to manufacture small molecules, biologics and genetic medicines. It will be near a $9 billion manufacturing complex that Lilly is building in Lebanon, Indiana, to produce pharmaceutical ingredients such as tirzpatide, the active ingredient in Mongaro and Zybound.
The cranes and steel frames of the active construction site stand out among the flat farmland, about a 40-minute drive from Lilly's headquarters in Indianapolis.
The investments are part of Lilly's plan to build on its success with Mounjaro and Zepbound, which is riding a wave of popularity in so-called GLP-1 drugs with Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy.
Mongaro and Zipbound are expected to generate just $50 billion by 2028 — nearly double the company's full-year revenue in 2022. This gives Lilly more freedom to invest, but it also puts pressure on the company to find and develop more new drugs. . Continue to grow in the coming years.
Lilly is already charting its future beyond tiraspatide. The company also wants to develop more drugs for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
“There are all these tremendous opportunities to improve human health hiding in plain sight,” said Dr. Dan Skovronsky, Lilly's chief scientific officer. “In our industry, people usually want to see what's trending and then follow the leader. So, a lot of other companies are now pausing their various research projects so they can try to figure out how to catch up with us in obesity and Alzheimer's. Well, we're working on the next thing.” ”
A banner bearing the company's logo outside Eli Lilly's headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 17, 2024.
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Lilly wants to look for “breakthrough ideas” in areas where the company already has a foothold such as oncology and immunology, as well as newer areas such as cardiovascular disease, chronic pain and hearing loss, Skovronsky said.
Neuroscience is one area he and Rex particularly want to focus on. Lilly has a long history in the field between its antidepressant drug Prozac and the recently approved Alzheimer's drug Qisonla, but they see more work to do.
“Neuropsychology is a huge unmet need,” Rex said. “Addiction and mental health, but also neurodegenerative conditions, so we're investing heavily there. And maybe the gains we've made in obesity will help fund research in new areas.”
This does not mean that Lily has gotten rid of obesity.
Rex acknowledged that one drug will not meet all needs and that Lilly needs to continue to push science forward. He said that the company has 11 obesity medications in its production line with different mechanisms of action and delivery methods. This includes two drugs that are being closely monitored in phase 3 trials: an experimental tablet called orforgliprone, and another injectable drug called retatrotide.
Ricks said Lilly is investing everywhere it thinks it makes sense in obesity, but he recognizes that other companies may explore new mechanisms that Lilly likely hasn't. He wants to see more pills, especially ones that can go after multiple targets. He's also interested in technologies that mean injections are given less frequently, such as short interfering RNA.
Any new developments could help Lilly become the first trillion-dollar healthcare company. The company's shares have risen about 65% over the past year, giving Lilly a market value of about $840 billion.
Rex downplays the importance of reaching the $1 trillion mark, saying that would be an outcome, not a goal, for Lilly.
“We want to do things of value, and if we succeed, we create value,” Rex said. “This way we will reach a higher number.”
