Lilly outlines $1bn India manufacturing expansion

[Credit: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com].

Lilly is set to invest more than $1 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in India as part of a global reworking of its facilities.

The US pharma company will establish a manufacturing and quality hub in Hyderabad that will provide oversight for its regional production and local contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) partners.

Patrik Jonsson, President of Lilly International, said: “We are making significant investments to increase manufacturing and medicine supply capacity around the world. India will play an important role in supporting our evolving portfolio.”

The company is busily engaged in a “strategic evolution” of its global manufacturing network that to date has predominantly focused on its US operations.

As part of that drive the company will sell off its Branchberg, New Jersey site, and open four new facilities, with Virginia and Texas confirmed as locations for the first two.

The new Hyderabad site will add to Lilly’s presence in the Southern Indian city. This was recently expanded with the opening of a new innovation site in the Gachibowli district which will focus on areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation, cloud computing and software product engineering.

The company’s latest manufacturing investment also follows the Indian launch earlier this year of Lilly’s obesity drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide), Since its March debut on the market Lilly’s blockbuster has become India’s second best-selling pharmaceutical product as the country grapples with the twin challenges of obesity and diabetes.