Lilly and Resilience to invest $750 million in Ohio injectable manufacturing
The $750 million upgrade adds pen assembly for Lilly's diabetes and obesity medicines in Ohio, but full operations are not expected until 2027, so it does not change supply now.
Eli Lilly and the contract manufacturer Resilience will invest $750 million to expand pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States, adding production of Lilly's KwikPen injectable device at a site in the Cincinnati, Ohio, region [1][2].
The KwikPen is the prefilled pen device Lilly uses for its diabetes and obesity medicines. Resilience's Ohio operations have been making Mounjaro and Zepbound, both tirzepatide, since the two companies first partnered in 2023 [2]. Resilience said the region's manufacturing operations will now include the KwikPen device [1]. This is an upgrade to an existing site rather than a new plant, and Resilience said full operations from the upgrade are expected to commence in 2027 [2].
The investment will create at least 400 new jobs at the Ohio site, according to Resilience, bringing its headcount in the state to more than 1,400 [2]. Reuters reported the figure as 400 new high-skilled jobs in the Cincinnati region [1].
Resilience said the partnership has already produced more than 150 million doses of Lilly medicines for U.S. patients in vial and prefilled syringe formats [1][2]. The KwikPen work is a new addition; the 150 million doses cited do not include pens.
"Our investment reflects our long-term commitment to building one of the largest and most advanced sterile injectable and device assembly and packaging operations in the United States," Resilience CEO William Marth said in a statement [2]. Edgardo Hernandez, Lilly's manufacturing head, said the partnership reflects the drugmaker's efforts to meet rising demand for its medicines [1].
The announcement comes as global drugmakers ramp up U.S. manufacturing and stockpile inventory. The Trump administration has moved to impose 100% tariffs on branded drugs unless companies cut prices or make medicines domestically [1]. Lilly's U.S. capital expansion commitments since 2020 total more than $55 billion, and the company plans to break ground on several recently announced U.S. manufacturing sites this year [1].
Resilience, formerly known as National Resilience, moved its headquarters from San Diego to Blue Ash, Ohio, about 15 miles northeast of Cincinnati. It operates two advanced manufacturing facilities in the Cincinnati region that together occupy roughly 1 million square feet [2]. In 2024 the company announced a $225 million plan to upgrade two plants, including the Ohio facility, which at that time was running three high-speed fill lines for vials, cartridges and prefilled syringes, with plans for a fourth line [2].
The company has also shrunk. In June 2025 it said it was consolidating operations and shutting six of its 10 sites [2]. In October 2025 it sold a gene therapy manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, to OXB for $4.5 million [2]. Resilience launched in 2020 with an $800 million investment and raised additional rounds of $625 million and $600 million by the end of 2021; it secured a $410 million loan from the Department of Defense in 2023 [2].
Demand for Lilly's injected diabetes and obesity drugs could grow further if the company wins approval for retatrutide, an investigational triple-action medicine that is expected to be approved next year and that provided up to 28.3% weight loss in obesity patients in trials [2].
Why it matters for patients
Most people taking Lilly's tirzepatide medicines — Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity — use a prefilled pen rather than a vial and syringe. Adding KwikPen assembly capacity in the United States targets the part of the supply chain that turns finished drug into the device patients actually use [1][2].
Timing is the main caveat. Full operations from the upgrade are expected to start in 2027 [2], so this does not add pens to the market in the near term. Lilly describes the spending as a response to rising demand for its medicines [1], and Resilience describes it as a long-term commitment [2]. Neither company said how many additional doses or pens the site will produce, and that figure has not been disclosed.
It also has not been reported whether the investment will affect the list price of Mounjaro or Zepbound, or whether the Ohio line will supply both medicines. The tariff proposal applies to branded drugs unless companies cut prices or make medicines domestically [1], but no source states what this $750 million investment means for what patients pay.
What happens next
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Sources
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