While much of the company’s recent focus has remained on beefing up its U.S. infrastructure, Eli Lilly has for the second time this week made moves to raise capacity for its medicines overseas, and once again in Asia.
The company on Thursday unveiled a 20 billion Japanese yen (nearly $126 million) expansion at its Seishin plant in Kobe, Japan, where Lilly’s local unit plans to install a fresh production line and add a new warehouse by 2028, according to a Japanese-language press release (PDF).
Lilly did not clarify which drugs the expansion will support, although Nikkei Asia reported on March 12 that the project will bolster manufacturing of medicines for diabetes and obesity.
The Seishin plant was established in 1981 and currently boasts a headcount of around 315 employees, serving as Lilly’s lone in-house production facility in Japan, according to the release.
Aside from the new manufacturing line and storage space, Lilly said the investment will promote digitalization and process optimization at the plant to help supply the Japanese market.
Citing “increasing demand” in the country, Lilly noted that “it is important for us to respond quickly and flexibly to future supply expansions.”
The company pointed out that it previously invested 7 billion yen (around $44 million) at the Seishin facility between 2022 and 2025, which paved the way for new automated device sorting machines, quality testing lab improvements, a new factory building and a fresh packaging line.
“This additional investment was made in response to the need for further expansion of our supply capacity,” Lilly said of the latest outlay.
The plant currently occupies a footprint of 23,000 square meters (247,570 square feet) and is primarily involved in analytical testing, inspection and packaging of Lilly products, according to the company’s announcement.
With its local partner Mitsubishi Tanabe, Lilly has in recent years launched its dual GIP/GLP-1 med tirzepatide across both diabetes and obesity (PDF) indications in Japan, and the company also won approval for its Alzheimer’s disease med Kisunla in the country back in 2024.
Lilly’s Japan outlay comes on the heels of a major $3 billion investment in the company’s manufacturing operations in China, where the pharma giant has pledged to set up local production for oral solid drugs, and in particular its GLP-1 pill for obesity orforglipron, which is under regulatory review in multiple parts of the world.
The project, which will play out over a decade, will also see Lilly work with multiple local manufacturing partners, with the first named being Beijing-based CDMO Pharmaron.
The Indianapolis pharma has also recently committed to a $500 million investment in South Korea. Instead of manufacturing, the money is meant to attract clinical trials to the country, while also support opening an incubator as part of the Lilly Gateway Labs.
Back in the U.S., Eli Lilly has committed to multiple high-profile plant builds in recent months, most recently with plans for a $3.5 billion injectables and device facility in Pennsylvania. Prior to that, the company telegraphed new manufacturing sites in Virginia, Texas and Alabama.
Those investments have arrived amid a spate of similar U.S. moves by Big Pharma companies looking to navigate the Trump administration’s pharmaceutical import tariff threats.
