Lilly's 56% Revenue Surge Drives US$4.5bn Plant Expansion

Eli Lilly and Company announced a US$4.5bn investment across two manufacturing sites in Lebanon, US. The expansion brings the company's total capital commitments since 2020 to more than US$21bn.

The investment will fund advanced pharmaceutical ingredients production and genetic medicine manufacturing. According to Lilly, the expansion follows a 56% increase in first quarter 2026 revenue compared to the previous year.

David A. Ricks, Lilly Chair and Chief Executive Officer, says: "When our Lebanon API site opens in 2027, it will be the largest API production site in US history, a commitment we chose to build here, at home."

The revenue growth could show the commercial impact of two medications that treat type 2 diabetes and weight loss. Mounjaro and Zepbound both contain the active ingredient tirzepatide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist.

Genetic medicine facility opens

The investment will incorporate new process designs and technologies at Lilly Lebanon API, one of the company's future active pharmaceutical ingredient sites. It will also cover Lilly Lebanon Advanced Therapies, the company's first dedicated genetic medicine manufacturing facility.

Lilly Lebanon Advanced Therapies is designed to support both clinical and commercial production of advanced therapies that target disease at the genetic level. It will include a full spectrum of genetic medicine modalities from research-stage development through large-scale commercial supply.

According to Lilly, designing and building for these modalities required developing new manufacturing processes without established commercial precedent. The facility is the first of three planned sites on the Lebanon campus in Indiana.

The campus will also include Lilly Lebanon API and the Lilly Medicine Foundry. David says: "Lilly's legacy of firsts in Indiana continues today and the best measure of that legacy is what we do next."

Weight loss tablet approved

David says: "From genetic medicines that could one day prevent disease at its source, to Foundayo, a pill making weight loss treatment accessible to millions, we are not just discovering the medicines of the future, we are building the world's most advanced plants to make them."

In April 2026, Lilly released a weight loss tablet called Foundayo after it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The approval could mean increased market access for weight management treatments in oral form.

Lebanon, US is the site where the company manufactures two of its key products, Mounjaro and Zepbound. In 2024, Lilly announced plans to make both medications at its Lebanon API site.

Zepbound and Mounjaro are the most prescribed injectable medications for weight management and type 2 diabetes respectively. The manufacturing expansion could show the company's response to prescription volume growth.

Revenue increases for key products

In the first quarter of 2026, Lilly's worldwide revenue was US$19.8bn, an increase of 56% compared with the first quarter of 2025. According to Lilly, the growth was driven by a 65% increase in volume.

Revenue from key products grew to US$13.4bn in the same period, led by Mounjaro and Zepbound. In the first quarter of 2026, Lilly's worldwide Mounjaro revenue increased 125% to US$8.7bn.

In the first quarter of 2026, Zepbound revenue in the US alone increased 79% to US$4.1bn, compared with US$2.3bn the year before. The revenue growth in these two products could show the market demand for GLP-1 receptor agonist medications.

The company manufactures both medications at its Lebanon facilities. The US$4.5bn investment in manufacturing capacity follows the prescription and revenue increases reported in the first quarter of 2026.