Upper Macungie planners back Eli Lilly's $3.5 billion injectable medicine plant

The Upper Macungie Planning Commission voted Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, to recommend approval of the final subdivision and land development plan for a $3.5 billion Eli Lilly manufacturing campus near Fogelsville, Pennsylvania ^[1][2].

The project is officially called "Project Kennedy." It calls for a 797,432-square-foot manufacturing campus on about 150 acres at the Fogelsville Corporate Center, near Adams Road and Interstate 78, at 8810-9802 Main St. ^[1][2]. Township records listed it as Docket No. 2409 on the Planning Commission's March 18, 2026, agenda ^[2]. Lilly officials told planners the company closed on the property last month ^[1].

The recommendation is one step in the local approval process. Along with recommending the plan, planners granted three waivers and two modified waivers, and the applicant withdrew one waiver request ^[1].

What the campus would do

Lilly officials said the site will involve final assembly of injectable medicines and mixing externally manufactured pharmaceutical ingredients into solutions for retail packaging ^[1][2]. A Construction Review Online report lists expected products as Zepbound (tirzepatide) and retatrutide, an investigational treatment that remains in clinical trials ^[2].

The facility will run three shifts lasting between eight and 12 hours per day once operational ^[1][2]. Company representatives said no chemicals covered by the federal Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards will be used on site ^[1][2]. The campus will have a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week security protocol with card-access systems, a visitor center for screening, and an eight-foot perimeter fence that uses architectural elements along Main Street and transitions to chain-link along Interstate 78 ^[1][2].

Construction, jobs and traffic

The project is expected to create about 2,000 construction jobs over its full timeline ^[1][2]. Project officials told planners that about 1,200 construction workers would use rented parking on Tilghman Street and reach the site by shuttle bus, along with another 300 administrative employees; the full construction workforce is not expected to be on site at the same time ^[2]. Construction is expected to continue through 2029, with manufacturing operations projected to begin in 2031 ^[2].

On traffic, Lilly officials previously told the township they expect about 45 trucks per day, or roughly 90 truck trips, with 64 of those trips during peak hours and the rest spread through the day ^[1][2]. The project will be built in phases, starting with an amenities building and visitor center in the southwestern section of the site ^[1][2].

Why it matters for patients

This is a Lilly site, and the products tied to it in the available reporting are Lilly's: Zepbound and retatrutide ^[2]. It is not described as a plant for semaglutide, the molecule in Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus.

The campus is not expected to make finished medicine for retail packaging until operations begin, which the reporting projects for 2031 ^[2]. The Planning Commission's vote on Aug. 19, 2026, does not itself change the supply, availability or price of any medicine patients use now, and no such effect is described in the reporting ^[1][2].

Retatrutide remains in clinical trials and is not an approved medicine, so it is not something patients can be prescribed or fill at a pharmacy ^[2]. The reporting does not say how much manufacturing capacity the site will add, which specific products will be made there first, or whether the campus is intended to address any current or expected supply problem. Those details have not been disclosed.

What happens next

Township review of the project has moved through the local planning process over several months ^[2]. The sources do not say when final approval will be granted or when construction will start. The dated milestones reported so far are construction expected through 2029 and manufacturing operations projected to begin in 2031 ^[2]. A separate $750 million Genentech injectable-drug manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, was announced Aug. 20, 2026 ^[2].