Eli Lilly announced Wednesday that it plans to more than double its U.S. manufacturing investment this year to $50 billion as President Trump threatens to place tariffs on pharmaceutical imports.
The drug giant plans to begin building four domestic manufacturing locations in 2025 and add 13,000 high-wage manufacturing and construction jobs, according to a press release. The company claimed the plans account for the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing investment in U.S. history. (RELATED: Apple Announces $500 Billion Investment In America Days After CEO Meets With Trump)
Since 2020, Eli Lilly has invested over $23 billion globally including building, expanding and buying manufacturing installations. One of these was a facility in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, which was expected to add 750 skilled jobs to the workforce already at the location, Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said, according to a December press release from the company. Other investments have been new sites in North Carolina and Indiana, improvements to facilities in Indianapolis and work on the Lilly Medicine Foundry in Indiana.
“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.,” Lilly chair and CEO David Ricks said in the press release.
🚨Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks announces four new sites and a $27 billion investment in the U.S. economy.
THE GOLDEN AGE IS UPON US. pic.twitter.com/oVfU4Bsdtd
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 26, 2025
Three of the planned installations will be geared toward manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), bringing molecule chemical synthesis capacity back to the U.S. and enhancing Lilly’s supply network. The fourth location will extend the company’s global manufacturing network for injectable therapies in the future.
“We are not just building facilities,” Executive Vice President and President of Lilly Manufacturing Operations Edgardo Hernandez said. “We are creating a future where American innovation leads the world in pharmaceutical manufacturing, requiring a highly skilled workforce prepared to shape the future of health care.”
Eli Lilly claims they will create over 3,000 jobs for skilled engineers, scientists, operations workers and lab techs, in addition to 10,000 construction jobs during the development process. The company said the moves would bring spending, tax revenue, people and opportunities to the sites.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ETIENNE BALMER
Employees work in an unit dedicated to the production of insulin pens at the factory of the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in Fegersheim, eastern France, on October 12, 2015. US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly produces mostly insulin for the international market. (Photo FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Ricks also credited the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) for boosting the company’s domestic investment.
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act legislation passed in 2017 during President Trump’s first term in office has been foundational to Lilly’s domestic manufacturing investments, and it is essential that these policies are extended this year. We believe that our investments in America and upskilling our nation’s workforce will spark a significant ripple effect. For every job we create, many more will be generated, positively impacting the communities that host our innovative new sites,” he said.
This move from Eli Lilly comes as President Donald Trump pushes for 25% or higher tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. On Feb. 18, Trump reaffirmed his plan in a press conference and said he would likely be providing more information on April 2.
“It’ll be 25% and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over the course of a year. But we want to give them time to come in,” he said. “When they come into the United States, and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff, so we want to give them a little bit of a chance.”
Trump’s plan breaks from World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that exempt pharmaceutical products from tariffs due to the complexity of implementing duties on these goods.
Ireland and Germany are the top exporters of pharmaceuticals to the U.S., according to ING Think — a think tank that does economic and financial analysis.
Eli Lilly has locations in both countries. The company operates two manufacturing facilities in Ireland and a third in Germany.
Eli Lilly is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, previously boasting a market cap of over $500 billion in October 2023, according to Visual Capitalist.