By Mackenzie Tatananni

The top executive at Eli Lilly vowed that the pharmaceutical giant would manufacture its experimental weight-loss pill in the U.S. amid President Donald Trump's reshoring push.

"We're going to make this medicine here in the United States," CEO Dave Ricks said Friday in an interview with Fox Business. "We'll be proud to make this medicine at that site and ship it around the world from our country."

Lilly's new treatment, an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist called orforglipron, cleared a late-stage clinical trial Thursday. The latest data showed "statistically significant efficacy results" and a safety profile consistent with injectable obesity drugs already on the market.

Lilly stock closed up more than 14% Thursday as the promising results drove double-digit percentage gains, while shares of Novo Nordisk fell. Orforglipron is seen as an answer to Novo's wildly popular injectables Ozempic and Wegovy injectables, which are approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and chronic weight management, respectively.

Orforglipron has four more Phase 3 trials to go. Lilly said it expects to file for regulatory approval for it as an obesity treatment by the end of the year and for diabetes treatment in 2026.

If Lilly were to produce the new drug in the U.S., it could avoid paying taxes on pharma imports. The company, which also has sites in Ireland and Germany, announced in February that it would build four new manufacturing plants on U.S. soil.

Trump has repeatedly teased pharma tariffs, saying last week that "major" levies would arrive soon. He previously took aim at Ireland and claimed the country "has got the entire U.S. pharmaceutical industry in its grasp." Lilly said in September that it was investing around $1.9 billion in a new facility in Limerick, Ireland.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

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April 18, 2025 11:46 ET (15:46 GMT)

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