Eli Lilly It will spend $4.5 billion to build a center aimed at finding better ways to make medicines.
The facility, called the Lilly Medicine Foundry, will develop new manufacturing methods with an emphasis on efficiency. This strategy has already paid off with Lilly’s obesity and weight-loss drugs Munjaro and Zepbound, and Lilly hopes to use this to power the rest of its pipeline.
The foundry serves two purposes. That means researching new manufacturing procedures and implementing them to produce drugs for clinical trials. Lilly said the facility will be the first to combine research and production in one location.
“The idea is to take molecules off the bench in the lab and scale them up for pharmaceutical use in pharmacies,” Eli Lilly CEO David Rix said in an interview at its headquarters in Indianapolis. will be doing that work.” .
The center is scheduled to open at the end of 2027 and will be equipped to manufacture small molecules, biologics, and genetic medicines. It will be near the $9 billion manufacturing complex Lilly is building in Lebanon, Indiana, that will produce drug ingredients such as Maunjaro and tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound.
About a 40-minute drive from Lilly’s Indianapolis headquarters, a crane and steel frame under construction jut out from among the flat farmland.
The investment is part of Lilly’s plan to build on Novo Nordisk’s success with Munjaro and Zepbound, which are riding a wave of popularity with so-called GLP-1 drugs in Ozempic and Wegoby.
Maunjaro and Zepbound alone are expected to generate $50 billion in revenue by 2028, nearly double the company’s full-year revenue in 2022. This will give Lilly more freedom to invest, but it will also put pressure on it to discover and develop more new drugs. It will continue to grow in the coming years.
Lilly is already envisioning a future beyond tirzepatide. The company also aims to develop more drugs for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
“All the great opportunities to improve human health are hiding in plain sight,” said Dr. Dan Skovronski, Lilly’s chief scientific officer. “In our industry, people generally like to see what’s trending and follow those leaders. So many other companies are currently trying to figure out how to catch up with us in the obesity and Alzheimer’s space. We are discontinuing various research projects in order to explore the following. ”
A sign with the company’s logo stands outside Eli Lilly’s headquarters on March 17, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Lilly wants to look for “breakthrough ideas” not only in areas where the company already has a foothold, such as oncology and immunology, but also in new areas such as cardiovascular disease, chronic pain and hearing loss, Skovronski said. said.
Neuroscience is one area he and Ricks want to focus on. Lilly has a long history in the field between the antidepressant Prozac and the newly approved Alzheimer’s drug Kisunra, but believes there’s more work to do.
“Neuropsychology is a huge unmet need,” Ricks says. “We’re investing a lot of money there, not only in addiction and mental health, but also in neurodegenerative diseases. And perhaps the profits we make on obesity will help fund research in new areas. It might help.”
That doesn’t mean Lily’s obesity is over.
Ricks acknowledged that no one drug can meet all needs and that Lilly needs to continue moving the science forward. The company has 11 obesity drugs in its pipeline with different mechanisms of action and delivery methods, he said. These include two drugs that are being looked at in Phase 3 trials: an experimental drug called orforglipron and another injectable drug called retatortide.
Ricks said Lilly is investing wherever it makes sense regarding obesity, but recognizes that other companies may explore new mechanisms that Lilly doesn’t. He said there was. He wants more drugs, especially drugs that can hit multiple targets. He is also interested in techniques that reduce the frequency of injections, such as short interfering RNA.
New advances could make Lilly the first $1 trillion health care company. The company’s stock has soared nearly 65% over the past year, giving Lilly a market capitalization of about $840 billion.
Ricks downplays the importance of hitting the $1 trillion goal, saying it’s an outcome for Lilly, not a goal.
“We want to do something of value, and if we’re successful, we can create value,” Ricks said. “That way we can reach even bigger numbers.”
