{"id":326620,"date":"2026-11-13T02:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T02:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/326620\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T02:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T02:38:09","slug":"eli-lilly-breaks-ground-on-3-5b-lehigh-valley-pharmaceutical-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/326620\/","title":{"rendered":"Eli Lilly breaks ground on $3.5B Lehigh Valley pharmaceutical plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday\u2019s stormy weather paused long enough for Lehigh Valley officials to join the head of Eli Lilly and Co. and Gov. Josh Shapiro to officially kick off construction of the $3.5 billion pharmaceutical plant in Upper Macungie Township<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On hand for the groundbreaking was Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., who said this project, along with Chobani\u2019s $1.2 billion investment<\/a> for a hub in Upper Macungie that was announced in the summer, could be a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lilly announcement has opened discussions with life sciences companies and manufacturers that we\u2019ve been previously having,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cWhile nothing is imminent, the opportunities have broadened from these names. You know, our biggest challenge today is not interest in the market \u2014 it\u2019s finding the right locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting Lilly and Chobani on board has brought interest from other big businesses, though Cunningham didn\u2019t reveal any names.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very different from how things were,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, we can have some [announcements] next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several local officials crowded into a tent set up in the middle of the project area, a former farm field between Interstate 78 and Old Route 22 just west of Fogelsville. The complex will include an 800,000-square-foot manufacturing facility along with a visitors center, administrative offices and an automated warehouse on 150 acres.<\/p>\n

When fully operational, the plant will employ about 850 people. Meanwhile, it will take about 2,000 workers to build it.<\/p>\n

Dirt has already been turned at the site, and heavy construction equipment was sitting near the tent.<\/p>\n

Lilly Chair and CEO David Ricks said the plant will manufacture next-generation injectable medicines, including treatments for obesity, diabetes and related chronic conditions. He expected to be fully up and running by 2030, if not sooner.<\/p>\n

Ricks credited a friendlier economic environment on both the state and federal levels for Lilly\u2019s investing $50 billion in the Lehigh Valley and nine other new U.S. sites.<\/p>\n

He added that quality will be important, and that people will always come before technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality is our first priority in every manufacturing site,\u201d Ricks said. \u201cAnd Lehigh Valley will build on that discipline with machine learning, AI and digitally integrated systems from Day 1. This site will be the most technically advanced \u2014 not just at Lilly, but in the industry. And it\u2019s important to note that at these sites, technology will be working for the people who work here and run it, not the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro, who just won reelection as governor, said the Lilly investment has been on people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mentioned a big investment that Lilly is making here in our region, and a dude in the back row screams out, \u2018Go Lilly!\u2019 And I thought, oh, that\u2019s infused itself into the culture,\u201d he said. \u201cYou typically do not hear people cheering for pharmaceutical companies in remarks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham said it\u2019s part of the Lehigh Valley\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Lehigh Valley, we kind of live in the shadows of Philadelphia and New York \u2014 we\u2019ll never have our own major league sports team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cheer for manufacturers. Mack Trucks, Crayola, B. Braun, Martin Guitars \u2014 and now we cheer for Lilly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday\u2019s stormy weather paused long enough for Lehigh Valley officials to join the head of Eli Lilly and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,433,157,182,139,9790,28,432,4129],"class_list":["post-326620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-business","tag-lehigh-county","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-parkland-area","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-upper-macungie-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}