Eli Lilly announce $3 billion expansion in Wisconsin

Eli Lilly and Company announced a significant expansion at its Pleasant Prairie facility Thursday. The pharmaceutical giant plans a $3 billion investment, which is expected to create 750 new jobs at the site. The facility will be used to increase production of its most sought-after weight loss medication.”This is truly a historic moment here in Kenosha County,” Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman said during Thursday’s announcement. The facility, previously owned by Nexus Pharmaceuticals, was acquired by Lilly earlier this year. Construction on the expansion is expected to begin next year. The CEO said the facility will primarily manufacture its injectable weight loss medication Mounjaro and Zepbound. “Those are two very popular products right now,” Lilly Chair and CEO David Ricks said. “They’re our best-selling products, and essentially everything we make, we sell. So, we need to make more.”The drugs help patients lose weight and manage diabetes. The popularity of these types of injection medications skyrocketing in recent years. “There’s probably not a day that goes by where you’re not seeing a patient who’s on one of these medications or starting one of these medications,” UW Health Endocrinologist Dr. Dawn Belt Davis told WISN 12 News. The endocrinologist and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison said she’s seen the use of the weight loss drug “take off” in the last two to four years. But with that comes inventory issues. “We’ve had a lot shortages, a lot of supply chain issues where patients can’t get the medication because its not available, Dr. Belt Davis said. “My hope is that kind of regardless where its located, having more production facilities will really help with that backlog.”