Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), a US-based pharmaceutical company, broke ground on a USD3.5bn manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley on Thursday.

Located in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley site is expected to be operational by 2031.

The site is one of 10 new US manufacturing sites announced since 2020, and one of four among them dedicated to injectable medicines and devices. The company says that the Lehigh Valley site will add capacity for the next generation of obesity treatments, including retatrutide, a first-in-class investigational GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon triple hormone receptor agonist.

Lilly says that the Lehigh Valley site will use state-of-the-art technologies, including machine learning, AI, digitally integrated systems and advanced data analytics, to drive right-first-time execution, with digital automation embedded throughout the site to streamline operations. The site is targeting a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.

Lilly is currently hiring in the Lehigh Valley and expects the new facility to create 850 high-wage jobs like engineers, scientists, operations personnel, and lab technicians, along with approximately 2,000 construction jobs as the site is built and brought online.