Drugmaker Eli Lilly plans to invest up to $27 billion to build four new pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the U.S., the company announced Wednesday, a move that comes as President Trump is threatening import tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
The company said three of the future U.S. sites will focus on manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients. The fourth location will focus on injectable therapies.
Lilly said the sites have not been chosen yet, but the new locations will create 3,000 high-skilled jobs and employ 10,000 construction workers over the next five years.
Lilly previously invested $23 billion from 2020 to 2024 for new manufacturing sites in Wisconsin and North Carolina and expansions in its home state of Indiana.
Trump has been pressuring drugmakers and other industries to move manufacturing back to the U.S., and earlier this month said he was considering a 25 percent tariff on imports of pharmaceuticals and products like automobiles and semiconductors.
“Our confidence positions us to help reinvigorate domestic manufacturing, which will benefit hard-working American families and increase exports of medicines made in the U.S.A.,” David A. Ricks, Lilly’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This bold move reflects our commitment to stay ahead of anticipated demand for safe, high-quality, FDA-approved medicines of the future.”
Ricks credited Trump’s tax cuts with helping to fuel the company’s domestic investments and called for them to be extended, a key priority for Trump and congressional Republicans. Two separate budget resolutions have advanced in the House and Senate as part of kicking off the legislative process that lawmakers want to use to enact Trump’s agenda.
Lilly has been working to increase manufacturing capacity to meet the massive demand for its blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.
The drugs have been in shortage for years due to a lack of manufacturing capacity, though the Food and Drug Administration recently removed tirzepatide, the generic name for the drugs, off the shortage list.
