Novo Nordisk plans $2bn expansion of production facilities
pharmafile | August 26, 2015 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development | Novo Nordisk, manufacturing
Novo Nordisk will invest an estimated $2 billion over the next five years in new production facilities in the US, and Måløv, Denmark in a bid to meet the increasing worldwide demand for its diabetes medicines.
The Danish company hopes this will include oral semaglutide, a once-daily type 2 diabetes treatment that Novo announced it is taking to Phase IIIa development. This, along with a range of the company’s current and future GLP-1 and insulin products, will be manufactured at the plant in Clayton, North Carolina.
A $1.2 billion investment is expected to create close to 700 new production, manufacturing and engineering jobs in the area, where Novo Nordisk already employs more than 700 people. The facility here has already undergone several expansions since it was established in 1993.
Johnston County officials have secured options to acquire a 95-acre tract of land for the site at a cost of about $2.2 million, which it will lease to Novo Nordisk, the local News & Observer newspaper reported.
The remaining $800 million will fund a new production facility in Måløv, Denmark, for tableting and packaging of oral semaglutide and other future oral products. The investment in Måløv will create an estimated 100 new jobs, adding to the current 250 staff at the existing site, which produces tablets for hormone replacement therapy.
Henrik Wulff, executive vice president and head of product supply at Novo Nordisk, says: “With the new plant in Clayton and continuous investments in our current API production plants in Kalundborg, Denmark, we will have sufficient API capacity for diabetes products well into the next decade.”
“We decided to place the new API facilities in the US for strategic reasons,” he continues. “The US is by far our largest market and there are many logistical and economic advantages of having a larger part of our manufacturing in our main market. After a thorough evaluation of multiple sites and an extensive vetting process, Clayton ended up being our preferred location.
“We already have a large and very professional organisation there and an excellent collaboration with city, local and state leadership, and we appreciate the incentives they have secured in connection with this investment.”
The final design and cost of the new production facilities will be presented for approval by the company’s board of directors in 2016, and the facilities are expected to be operational during 2020.
Joel Levy
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