May 24 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly ( LLY ) said on Friday it

has invested another $5.3 billion in its new Lebanon, Indiana

manufacturing plant, more than doubling its previous investment,

as it scrambles to meet soaring demand for its weight-loss and

diabetes drugs.

The new investment, which brings the total to $9 billion,

will help boost production of the active pharmaceutical

ingredients (API) for Lilly's powerful weight-loss drug Zepbound

and diabetes treatment Mounjaro, the company said.

"Today's announcement tops the largest manufacturing

investment in our company's history and, we believe, represents

the single largest investment in synthetic medicine API

manufacturing in U.S. history," said Lilly CEO David Ricks.

The Indianapolis-based company expects supply of Zepbound to

remain "quite tight" in the near and midterm as it ramps up

capacity, it said on an investor call last month.

Lilly has committed a total of $16 billion to building new

manufacturing sites since 2020, including $2.5 billion for a

plant in Germany, and another $1.2 billion to update existing

facilities, it said.

The company last month announced it will acquire a

manufacturing facility from Nexus Pharmaceuticals to produce

injectable medicines.