$Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$The company built a factory in Ireland, expanded production of diet pills, and made every effort to meet the growing demand for its drugs.

On Thursday, September 12, Bloomberg reported that US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly plans to spend 1 billion dollars to expand its existing plant in Limerick, Ireland, and also spend 0.8 billion dollars to build new facilities at its factory in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, in an effort to meet the market demand for its star drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. The supply of medicines has been in short supply since 2022.

The new facility at the Kinsale plant will be used to produce tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly's drug injection pens. Edgardo Hernandez, the company's executive vice president and head of manufacturing, said in a statement:

“These investments will increase the production of some of our medicines and help millions of people, but they won't stop there — these advanced facilities will also support us in developing pipeline molecules.”

According to the International Pharmaceutical Engineering Association, Eli Lilly's hybrid manufacturing method not only increased production but also reduced the difficulty of producing precision peptide drugs. Lilly's new facility was named “Facility of the Year” due to its innovation.

Explosive demand

In recent years, the market for diet pills has been in broad demand and is in short supply. Lilly's diet pills are considered to be one of the best-selling drugs in history.

Since 2020, Eli Lilly has invested more than $17 billion to develop new plants and expand existing facilities, which Eli Lilly employees say is “the most ambitious manufacturing expansion” in nearly 150 years of history.

Novo Nordisk, another weight loss “duo,” has also invested billions of dollars to increase its drug production capacity.

Not only in Ireland, Eli Lilly's new plants around the world will support the production of weight loss drugs. The products include active ingredients, injection equipment, etc., covering all aspects of the supply chain.

The weight loss medicine market is expected to reach 130 billion dollars by the end of this century. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are competing to produce these drugs, but so far none of them have kept up with the pace of demand.

Currently, a shortage of production capacity has prevented Novo Nordisk from launching its oral diet pills; drug shortages have caused patients to start looking for alternatives and hindered people who want to start using these drugs; at the same time, limited supply has delayed the introduction of these diet pills in new countries.

According to Bloomberg, Eli Lilly plans to launch Zepbound vials in the near future, which should ease some of the supply shortages. At the same time, Eli Lilly is still promoting the production of next-generation diet pills, but these drugs are still in clinical trials. Hernandez said:

“It's something we've never done before, but we're moving fast to make sure we're ready for the future.”

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