Media365
The move would bring the total cumulative investment of Eli Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalisation, in China to nearly US$6 billion, according to a statement released on its WeChat account on Wednesday.
“This investment … underscores our strategic layout and firm commitment to the future,” said Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice-president and president of manufacturing operations at the US giant.
The centrepiece of the new investment is the establishment of a domestic production and supply system for oral solid preparations. Eli Lilly plans to build high-volume manufacturing capacity for orforglipron, its first-in-class oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist currently under review for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.
At the same time, Eli Lilly said it would expand its reach through strategic partnerships with domestic leaders, including Pharmaron Beijing, a prominent contract research and manufacturing organisation. Eli Lilly would invest US$200 million to support Pharmaron’s technical capacity building, with the potential for further scale-up as the project evolved.
