Eli Lilly's company history begins with an 1876 Indianapolis laboratory

Colonel Eli Lilly, a chemist and pharmacist who served in the Civil War, opened a two-story laboratory near Meridian and Pearl Streets in Indianapolis in 1876 ^[1]. Three people worked there, one of them his 14-year-old son, and manufacturing took place in a single room of about 160 square feet ^[1]. That laboratory grew into Eli Lilly and Company, which today sells the tirzepatide medicines Mounjaro and Zepbound ^[1].

Lilly's history page frames the founding as the start of six generations, saying the company began when its founder paired scientific rigor with a concern for the people and communities it served ^[1]. Employees, the page says, carry on his instruction to take what they find and keep improving it ^[1].

The dated milestones begin in 1906, when the company replaced drug supplies lost in the San Francisco earthquake at no charge ^[1]. In 1917 it partnered with the American Red Cross on a field hospital in France staffed by Indiana personnel, treating wounded soldiers of all nationalities ^[1]. Iletin, an animal-source insulin described as the first commercially available insulin product, arrived in 1923, for a disease then considered fatal with no effective treatment ^[1]. A liver extract for pernicious anemia followed in 1928 ^[1]. During the 1940s Lilly was among the first to work out mass production of Penicillin-G ^[1], and in 1955 it became the first company to manufacture and distribute the Salk polio vaccine globally ^[1]. Vancocin (vancomycin hydrochloride) came in 1958 and Velban (vinblastine) in 1961 ^[1].

Recombinant DNA entered the list in 1982 with Humulin, human insulin that the company calls the first human-health product made that way ^[1]. Prozac (fluoxetine hydrochloride) was introduced in Belgium in 1986 ^[1]; Zyprexa (olanzapine) and Gemzar (gemcitabine hydrochloride) in 1996 ^[1]; Cymbalta (duloxetine hydrochloride) in 2004 ^[1]. Lilly bought Loxo Oncology in 2019, its largest acquisition at that point, and opened the first Lilly Gateway Labs the same year ^[1].

Recent entries are the ones most patients will recognize. Mounjaro (tirzepatide) was introduced for diabetes in 2022 ^[1]. Zepbound (tirzepatide) was approved for chronic weight management in 2023 and gained another indication in 2024 as the first and only prescription medicine for adults with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea and obesity ^[1]. Kisunla (donanemab) and the LillyDirect ordering service both arrived in 2024 ^[1].

On cost, the page lists the Lilly Diabetes Solution Center, opened in 2018 to help people in the U.S. who need assistance paying for Lilly insulin, and the Lilly Insulin Value Program, launched in 2020 with a $35 copay card for certain medicines regardless of insurance status and expanded in 2023 ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

The company behind tirzepatide has been selling prescription medicine for more than a century ^[1]. Its history is heavily weighted toward diabetes: insulin in 1923, human insulin in 1982, and a tirzepatide product for type 2 diabetes in 2022 ^[1]. Patient cost programs appear on the same timeline, but the page says they were built around Lilly insulin and does not state whether the $35 copay card or the Solution Center apply to tirzepatide ^[1].

Semaglutide, sold as Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, does not appear anywhere on the timeline ^[1]. Neither does the page say what the 1876 laboratory actually made or sold, who its first customers were, or how the company's 150-year milestone is being marked ^[1].

What happens next

The most recent dated entry is from 2025, when Lilly announced additional investment in new manufacturing ^[1]. No anniversary events, product announcements or changes to patient assistance programs tied to the founding date have been reported ^[1].