UPPER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. — Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company is building a manufacturing campus in the Lehigh Valley, a multi-billion-dollar project that promises to create hundreds of new jobs.
Eli Lilly Chair and Chief Executive Officer David Ricks was joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and several state and Lehigh County leaders in making the announcement Friday morning at the Da Vinci Science Center in downtown Allentown.
Lilly is purchasing a site on Main Street (Old U.S. 22) in the Fogelsville section of Upper Macungie Township to build what will be its first manufacturing center in Pennsylvania. The property, known as the Fogelsville Corporate Center near Adams Rd. and I-78, is currently undeveloped agricultural land owned by David Jaindl.
Plans call for 925,000 square feet of manufacturing space across multiple buildings. The project is expected to create 850 jobs over the next five years.
According to the governor’s office, Eli Lilly’s $3.5 billion investment is the largest by a life sciences company in state history. It’s also the largest single economic development project in Lehigh Valley history, the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) said.
“I meant what I said, the fact that this is a company on the leadership of Dave Ricks, where they could place this facility anywhere in the globe, and yet they made a commitment to investing in the United States of America through these four sites,” Shapiro said.
The company was wooed to the area thanks in part to a $100 million funding proposal from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).
The DCED pledged up to $50 million in tax credits through the PA Edge Tax Credit Program, a $25 million grant through the Pennsylvania Strategic Investments to Enhance Sites (PA SITES) Program, and a $25 million Pennsylvania First grant.
The state has also committed to providing a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) award of up to $5 million to Lehigh Carbon Community College to help create a workforce development training program that would serve as a talent pipeline for the company in the Lehigh Valley.
In addition, Lilly is receiving an assist from the PA Permit Fast Track Program, which was created by Gov. Shapiro in November 2024 to streamline the permitting process for economic development and infrastructure projects that are deemed priorities.
“Before I took office, Pennsylvania wasn’t even in the conversation for major investments like this, but thanks to our work to cut red tape, invest in site development, and expand our workforce, our Commonwealth is now competing – and winning – on a national scale,” said Shapiro. “Lilly’s commitment to the Lehigh Valley and to Pennsylvania will bring billions of dollars of investment and hundreds of good-paying jobs, solidifying our position as a leader in the growing life sciences industry.”
Landing Lilly
Don Cunningham, president and CEO of LVEDC, compared the size of the potential economic impact to that of Bethlehem Steel. The difference, of course, is that the steel company grew steadily over several decades, while Eli Lilly is thrusting the Lehigh Valley into a new era in one fell swoop.
“To be able to land a company like Eli Lilly, a Fortune 100, trillion-dollar company, really puts us into a new chapter in our manufacturing history,” Cunningham said.
The process of securing the Lilly project began in the summer of 2024, when the LVEDC and other stakeholders learned the Lehigh Valley was being considered as a potential site. What followed, Cunningham said, was “thousands of hours of meetings,” with everyone from state officials to site consultants to utility companies.
Cunningham found out just before Christmas last year that their ultimate pitch had worked: Eli Lilly said ‘yes’ to the Valley.
Although the Lehigh Valley has a strong contingent of medtech and life science companies, like B. Braun, Olympus and OraSure, Eli Lilly will be the region’s first foray into medicine manufacturing on such a large scale.
According to the LVEDC, prior to Lilly, the largest Lehigh Valley economic development project was the initial investment in the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, now owned by Wind Creek, at $800 million in 2009. That was followed by the new $400 million Air Products headquarters in Upper Macungie in 2021, and the PPL Center ($180 million when it was built in 2014) in downtown Allentown.
150 years and counting
Eli Lilly is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the company was founded in 1876 by a man named Colonel Eli Lilly, a chemist and Civil War veteran.
One of the highlights on its lengthy timeline came in 1923, when the company became the first in the world to make insulin commercially available to diabetics.
In 1955, Eli Lilly was among the first drug makers to manufacture and distribute the Salk polio vaccine.
Today, the company has more than 50 medications in its portfolio, including the popular diabetes and weight loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound.
As of September 2025, Eli Lilly had more than 50,000 employees worldwide, including more than 23,000 in the U.S. It has manufacturing plants in nine countries. The company’s expansion in the Lehigh Valley is part of a larger plan to grow manufacturing in the U.S, with new facilities also planned in Virginia, Texas, and Alabama.
“To meet increasing demand, we’re expanding our U.S. manufacturing network, with Lehigh Valley adding capacity for next-generation weight-loss medicines,” said Ricks. “We’re creating high quality jobs and collaborating across the region—with suppliers, educators, and workforce development partners—to make critical medicines in the U.S. That’s our commitment—to patients, to our new Pennsylvania home, and to our country.”
Lilly announces plans to open Lilly Gateway Labs site in Philadelphia
By Eli Lilly and Company, Breakthrough Properties, Lilly Gateway Labs
The new facility in Lehigh County is the company’s second major investment in Pennsylvania in recent months. Last November, Eli Lilly announced plans to open a new lab in Philadelphia. The new Gateway Labs site will occupy 44,000 square feet of 2300 Market, a life sciences facility in Center City.
The manufacturing complex in Upper Macungie still requires local government approvals. Eli Lilly is acquiring the property with a given address of 9802 Main St. from Jaindl Land Development.
You can watch the full announcement recording below: