Lilly Breaks Ground on $6.5B Houston Manufacturing Site

Editor’s Take: Other states Lilly has invested in recently include Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Alabama.

Eli Lilly and Company broke ground this week in Houston, Texas. As part of the company’s $50 billion push to reshore medicine production, the $6.5 billion Houston site will manufacture Foundayo (orforglipron), Lilly’s first synthetic oral GLP-1 medicine, along with other small-molecule medicines and advanced therapeutics, including oligonucleotides.

David A. Ricks, Lilly Chair and CEO, said, “We are thrilled to break ground on our latest ‘medicines made in America’ site in the great state of Texas. This $6.5B investment will help change the game for tens of millions of people suffering from overweight, obesity and its consequences like diabetes. We will make and ship Lilly’s latest products from Texas to people here at home and around the world.”

Building a Talent Pipeline in Houston

In tandem with the construction, Lilly is providing $12.5 million to support a relationship with San Jacinto College to give Houstonians a pathway into advanced chemical synthesis manufacturing careers, with no prior experience required. This relationship will focus on developing training pathways and expanding the equipment and facility capacity needed to produce technicians, operators, maintenance professionals, and other manufacturing talent, while also leveraging Lilly experts to support curriculum development and instructor readiness and preparation. Separately, Lilly is providing a $2.5 million charitable donation to the San Jacinto College Foundation to support scholarships for eligible students.

Lilly is currently hiring in Houston and expects the new facility to create more than 600 high-wage jobs like engineers, scientists, operations personnel, and lab technicians — along with 4,000 construction jobs as the site is being built and brought online.

Edgardo Hernandez, Executive Vice President and President of Lilly Manufacturing Operations, said, “This facility will run on the talent of this community, powered by our relationship with San Jacinto College. We’re hiring across the greater Houston area to help residents build careers close to home.”