Lilly to build $5 billion Virginia plant, first of four new U.S. sites

Eli Lilly said on Sept. 16, 2025 that it plans to spend $5 billion on a manufacturing plant in Goochland County, Virginia, just west of Richmond. It is the first of four new U.S. plants the company has said it will announce this year ^[1][3][4].

What the site will make

Lilly described the Virginia site as its first dedicated, fully integrated facility for making both active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished drug product for its "emerging bioconjugate platform and monoclonal antibody portfolio" ^[1]. The company said the plant will also increase its domestic manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs ^[1].

ADCs are targeted therapies that link a monoclonal antibody to a potent medicine payload so it can be delivered to diseased cells. Lilly says they are used mainly to treat cancer and are being explored for autoimmune diseases and other conditions ^[1][4]. The company will use machine learning, artificial intelligence and automated systems at the site ^[1].

Jobs and money

Lilly said the project will create 2,450 jobs in total: more than 650 permanent manufacturing positions, including engineers, scientists, operations staff and lab technicians, plus an expected 1,800 construction jobs ^[1]. The site is expected to be completed within five years ^[1]. Goochland County was chosen from hundreds of applications based on workforce, local incentives, utilities, transportation and zoning, Lilly said ^[1]. CEO David A. Ricks told CNBC the site is "ready to go" partly because construction had begun there in earlier years for a different industrial use ^[4].

Lilly announced in February 2025 that it would spend at least $27 billion on four new U.S. plants, on top of $23 billion in earlier U.S. investments since 2020 ^[4]. The Virginia release describes the project as part of $50 billion in U.S. capital expansion commitments since 2020 ^[1][2]. Lilly said the investment and job numbers go beyond what it initially committed to in Virginia's incentive process ^[1].

Ricks said the Virginia site is "new capacity to allow for pipeline growth," and that Lilly will shift some production there from third parties and "other nodes in our network, mostly from Europe" ^[4]. He said the main reason to build in the U.S. was the tax situation rather than the threat of pharmaceutical tariffs, adding that "it makes more sense to build in the U.S. than ever before" ^[4].

Why it matters for patients

Nothing in the announcement says the Virginia plant will make GLP-1 medicines such as tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound. Lilly describes the site as being for cancer, autoimmune and other advanced therapies based on bioconjugates and monoclonal antibodies ^[1]. Whether the project will change supply or pricing for GLP-1 drugs has not been reported.

CNBC noted that Lilly's recent U.S. investments build on the success of Zepbound and Mounjaro, but that the new spending is not only for obesity and diabetes treatments ^[4]. Lilly has not disclosed which specific products would move to Virginia, or when.

The company expects to begin making medicines at all four of the new U.S. facilities within five years ^[1][4]. That is a long horizon, and the ADC-based cancer and autoimmune medicines the plant is designed for are still being developed or studied for additional uses ^[1][4].

What happens next

Lilly said it plans to announce the three remaining U.S. manufacturing sites this year ^[1][4]. The Virginia plant is expected to be completed within five years, and the company expects all four facilities to be making medicines within that window ^[1]. A start date for construction or for first production at the Virginia site has not been disclosed.