Eli Lilly expands Foundayo manufacturing capacity with Houston plant investment

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Eli Lilly expands Foundayo in Houston

Highlights

Eli Lilly broke ground on a 240-acre Houston manufacturing facility set to produce Foundayo and small-molecule ingredients, with operations beginning by 2030.
The company committed $27 billion in February 2025 to four new U.S. manufacturing facilities, raising its total network investment since 2020 to over $50 billion.
Foundayo achieved $98 million in Q2 U.S. sales following its April launch, with demand expected to rise as Medicare obesity drug coverage expands in July.

Houston site supports long-term obesity drug supply

As reported by CNBC, Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks says one-third of new GLP-1 pill patients are taking Foundayo as the drugmaker works to narrow the advantage established by rival Novo in the category.

Ricks speaks in Houston in front of the roughly 240-acre site at Generation Park that will host Lilly’s new manufacturing facility. The company breaks ground on the project nearly a year after first announcing it, and says the plant is expected to be operational by 2030.

The facility is set to produce Lilly’s closely watched GLP-1 obesity pill, Foundayo, which entered the U.S. market in April. It will also manufacture active ingredients for other Lilly small-molecule medicines across cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience.

U.S. expansion strengthens competitive position

The Houston project forms part of Lilly’s broader effort to reshore manufacturing across the U.S. Over the last year, the company has increased domestic investment, including a February 2025 commitment to spend an additional $27 billion on four new facilities, among them the Houston site.

Lilly presents manufacturing scale as a competitive advantage alongside its drug portfolio in the race with Novo. Since 2020, the company has committed more than $50 billion to expand its manufacturing network, aiming to meet rising demand for obesity and diabetes treatments while supporting future product launches.

Demand for Foundayo continues to increase in the U.S. Lilly says the pill generated $98 million in second-quarter sales, its first full three-month period on the market, while Medicare’s obesity drug coverage that begins in July is expected to widen access to both Foundayo and the company’s weight-loss drug Zepbound.

In our earlier article on Novo’s cost-cutting and growth strategy in obesity drugs, we noted that the company has reduced its workforce by about 13,000 over the past year as competitive pressure in the weight-loss market has increased. Novo also outlined plans to launch more than five blockbuster medicines by 2030 to diversify beyond its heavy reliance on obesity and diabetes treatments.

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