The investment will expand Resilience’s U.S. capacity to make the KwikPen device Eli Lilly uses to deliver its injectable diabetes and obesity medicines.
Eli Lilly is expanding its partnership with service provider Resilience, with the pair committing $750 million to U.S. drug manufacturing capacity.
The partners are using the cash to bolster Resilience’s operations in the Cincinnati region. Through the investment, Resilience will significantly increase U.S. production of Lilly’s KwikPen injectable device for diabetes and obesity medicines. The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) is preparing the site for expansion with the aim of starting full operations early next year.
In February, Lilly won FDA approval for Zepbound in a multidose KwikPen device. The product includes four doses of the GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, providing a month of treatment for obesity or overweight in one device.
Resilience expects the KwikPen capacity expansion to create at least 400 jobs in the Cincinnati area. The addition of the new roles will bring the number of jobs created by Resilience in Ohio—where the CDMO has two sites around Cincinnati—up to 1,400. Resilience also has plants in Philadelphia and Toronto.
The spend on the Ohio site continues Resilience’s rapid rise. Launched in 2020 with more than $800 million from backers including Arch Venture Partners and 8VC, the CDMO went on to form pacts with companies including AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Takeda while raising almost $2.5 billion across two financing rounds, a debt deal and a loan from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Resilience has used the money to add manufacturing capacity. The CDMO expanded a facility in West Chester, Ohio, in 2023; invested $225 million in a Cincinnati plant in 2024; and grew at two Ohio locations in 2025. In June, Resilience moved its corporate headquarters from San Diego to Blue Ash, Ohio, a northern suburb of Cincinnati. The company has partnered with JobsOhio to help staff the sites.
The CDMO began working with Lilly in 2023. Resilience’s archives lack a press release naming Lilly as a partner in 2023, although that year the CDMO did disclose a 10-year biomanufacturing alliance with an unnamed “leading pharmaceutical company.” At the time, Resilience predicted the deal would support record revenues. Resilience has made more than 150 million doses of medicines for Lilly.
