SHANGHAI, March 11 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly plans to invest $3 billion over the next decade to expand supply chain capacity in China and build production capacity for its experimental type-2 diabetes and obesity treatment orforglipron, the U.S. drugmaker said in a statement on WeChat on Wednesday.
Orforglipron, Lilly’s once-daily oral non-peptide GLP-1 agonist, helped overweight adults without diabetes lose 12.4% of their body weight over 72 weeks at the highest dose in a late-stage trial.
In another study, orforglipron helped maintain weight loss in patients switching from its GLP-1 injection, known as Zepbound in the U.S., and rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
The company submitted a marketing application for orforglipron to China’s drug regulator at the end of 2025, Lilly said in its statement.
It also aims to establish a localised manufacturing and supply system for oral solid dosage forms, the statement said.
Lilly is the latest Western healthcare firm to announce additional manufacturing investment plans in China, following the likes of Haleon and AstraZeneca earlier this year.
Not all drugmakers are pursuing this path, however.
U.S. group Bristol Myers Squibb said in September it had signed an agreement to sell its 60% ownership stake in a pharmaceutical joint venture in China. A manufacturing facility in Shanghai was part of that venture.
(Reporting by Andrew Silver and Beijing Newsroom. Editing by Mark Potter)
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