US firm is strengthening its China operations amid an intensifying expansion race with other pharmaceutical giants
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenThemis QiandJulie ZhangPublished: 9:39pm, 11 Mar 2026Updated: 9:57pm, 11 Mar 2026Eli Lilly has pledged an additional US$3 billion investment in China over the next decade to strengthen its local supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, deepening the footprint of foreign pharmaceutical giants in the world’s second-largest healthcare market.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.
