Indiana, North Carolina Highlight Billions in U.S. Pharmaceutical-Biotech Investment

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Written by Danny Levin, Deputy Editor for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

According to Industrial Info Resources data, major developments in Indiana and North Carolina lead the U.S. with $76 billion worth of Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry projects under construction. This is buoyed by high-dollar efforts from industry giants such as Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk and Johnson & Johnson.

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U.S. Pharma Investment in the Billions

According to Industrial Info Resources data, major projects in Indiana and North Carolina lead the U.S. with $76 billion worth of Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry projects under construction across the U.S. This is buoyed by high-dollar efforts from industry giants such as Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk and Johnson & Johnson.

This comes as major global pharmaceutical companies are hard at work reshoring and expanding domestic production in the face of supply-chain and geopolitical risks and the threat of tariffs.

Eli Lilly in Indiana

Eli Lilly's multi-billion-dollar buildout in Lebanon, Indiana, is the foundation of its U.S. manufacturing investment. Projects across three sites are planned in part to support production of Mounjaro and Zepbound, the most prescribed injectable medications for weight management and type 2 diabetes, respectively.

More than $7 billion worth of investment is attributed to the construction of two grassroot peptide-manufacturing buildings as well as work in order to house new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing for glucose-related drugs. Production is expected to begin in 2028 and scale up through the end of the year.

Also underway is what Lilly says would be the largest API production site in U.S. history.

Earlier this month, Lilly announced a $4.5 billion project to construct a seven-building campus totaling 1.2 billion square feet to house drug development, research activities and clinical-scale production for API molecular therapies, molecules and nucleic acid therapies. According to a related press release, the new investment will support planned production of Foundayo, Lilly's first U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, once-daily pill for weight loss that can be taken without food or water restrictions, and retatrutide, a triple hormone receptor agonist in late-stage development for obesity and cardiometabolic disease. The latter mimics three natural hormones that regulate hunger, as opposed to Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro--which mimic two at most.

Readers can view detailed project reports and plant profiles related to Eli Lilly's investment in Lebanon, Indiana, in the Industrial Info Resources Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Pharmaceutical & Biotech Project and Plant databases. The information includes key details such as third-party contacts, investment values and necessary equipment.

Majors Building in North Carolina

Pharma majors Novo Nordisk, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation and Johnson & Johnson are offering up multi-billion-dollar investments in North Carolina.

Novo Nordisk is investing $4.1 billion at its site in Clayton, to build a new complex for the production of injectable finished products (IFP), APIs and oral solid dosage forms for diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases. Construction is expected to wrap up in 2028. View the related project report.

Fujifilm is wrapping up final construction of the Holly Springs End-To-End Monoclonal Antibodies CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) plant, which already is operating at half capacity. But that's not the only development at the site that is nearly complete: it's where Johnson & Johnson is building a pharmaceutical production plant. Subscribers to the IIR database can view more information on the Fujifilm and J&J projects.

Industrial Info Resources is tracking a much larger, standalone investment from Johnson & Johnson, in Wilson: $2 billion for a grassroot biological APIs plant that would be equipped for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Construction is expected to take years, potentially wrapping up in 2031. View the project report.

High-Dollar Investment Elsewhere

Other majors are investing across the country, and IIR is tracking high-dollar projects underway from Merck in New Jersey (oncology disease vaccine APIs) and Roche Group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (brownfield gene therapy site), among others.

The Industrial Info Resources GMI Project and Plant databases offer a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and a full list of related plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources also offers a full list of reports for pharma-bio projects under construction across the U.S.

Key Takeaways

• Major investment from Eli Lilly in Lebanon, Indiana and other majors in North Carolina lead the U.S. to $76 billion worth of Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry projects under construction.
• Eli Lilly's Indiana investment will support production of Mounjaro and Zepbound as well as two other obesity drugs.
• Novo Nordisk and Johnson & Johnson are spending billions in North Carolina.

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).