Drugmaker Eli Lilly has announced plans to invest $3.5 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, for its next-generation weight loss drugs.

According to a January 30 release from the company, this will mark the fourth new U.S. manufacturing facility announced by Eli Lilly in nearly a year, with construction slated to begin in 2026. The plant is scheduled to open sometime in 2031, as part of the company's larger push to spend roughly $27 billion on new domestic manufacturing plants, and expand its production capacity for obesity drugs that have exploded in popularity in recent years.

Read More: The GLP-1 Effect: How Weight Loss Drugs are Reshaping Food and Pharma

"Lilly Lehigh Valley will increase access to next-generation weight-loss treatments and improve the domestic supply of essential medicines for current and future patients," said Lilly Manufacturing Operations president Edgardo Hernandez. 

Among the drugs set to be produced at the facility will be retatrutide, one of Eli Lilly’s next-generation weight-loss drugs that’s still in clinical trials, but is widely viewed as the next major offering in the company’s line of popular obesity medications. The investment reflects Eli Lilly’s broader effort to scale up U.S. manufacturing capacity for its obesity drug portfolio, as it prepares for additional launches and seeks to ease ongoing supply constraints across its weight-loss treatments.

The Lehigh Valley site is expected to create 2,000 construction jobs during the build-out, as well as 850 roles for engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians. Other recently-announced sites for new manufacturing facilities include Alabama, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.