Lilly's chairman and CEO, Dave Ricks, stated on Monday that one-third of new patients taking oral GLP-1 medications are using the company's Foundayo, as the firm strives to close the gap with rival Novo Nordisk's established leadership in this space. He noted that the company's share of the oral drug market is gaining ground on a week-by-week basis.

Ricks expressed long-term confidence in Lilly's position within the oral tablet segment, particularly as the company plans to introduce Foundayo in additional international markets over the coming months. His remarks came during an interview at a roughly 240-acre site in Generation Park, Houston, Texas, which will eventually host Lilly's new $6.5 billion manufacturing facility.

The company broke ground on the plant Monday, nearly a year after first announcing the location, and stated that it expects the facility to become operational by 2030. The standout feature of this site is its role in producing Foundayo, Lilly's highly anticipated oral GLP-1 treatment for obesity, which entered the U.S. market in April. However, the facility will also manufacture active ingredients for other small-molecule drugs across multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology, and neuroscience.

This investment is part of a broader wave of initiatives Lilly has launched over the past year to reshore manufacturing to the United States. In February 2025, the company committed an additional $27 billion to build four new facilities, including the Houston site, partly as a strategy to build goodwill with President Donald Trump. Yet Lilly also emphasizes that manufacturing capacity, along with its drug portfolio, serves as a crucial competitive advantage over its primary rival, Novo Nordisk.

Since 2020, the company has pledged over $50 billion to expand its manufacturing network, aiming to address surging demand for obesity and diabetes treatments while supporting future product launches. Demand for Foundayo in the U.S. is on the rise. In August, the company reported that the oral drug generated $98 million in sales during the second quarter, marking its first full three-month period on the market. A landmark new Medicare coverage policy for obesity drugs, which began in July, is expected to boost accessibility for both this oral therapy and Lilly's blockbuster weight-loss injection, Zepbound.