Ozempic Maker to Construct $4.1 Billion US Factory
A rendering of the new facilities in Clayton, North Carolina. Construction is set for completion 2027-29
Danish drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced a $4.1 billion investment to expand its U.S. manufacturing capacity in Clayton, North Carolina.
In one of the largest investments in the firm's history, the planned expansion will add 1.4 million square feet of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes.
The new plant will double the combined square footage of the company's three existing North Carolina facilities, adding 1,000 new jobs to the almost 2,500 Novo Nordisk employees already working in the region, with 2,000 external contractors expected to be utilized at the height of the project.
Newsweek has reached out to Novo Nordisk for comment.
"It took us a century to reach 40 million patients, but through this expansion and continued investment in our global production, we're building Novo Nordisk's ability to serve millions more people living with serious chronic diseases in the future," said Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk.
"This is yet another real signal of our efforts to scale up our production to meet the growing global need for our life-changing medicines and the patients of tomorrow."
"Clayton was the first manufacturing site for Novo Nordisk in the U.S., and this new, large-scale investment confirms the continued importance of our production facilities there as cornerstones of our company's growth," said Henrik Wulff, executive vice president of product supply, quality and IT at Novo Nordisk.
"For decades, we have partnered to foster a well-trained, dedicated and diverse local workforce in North Carolina. In Clayton and across our global manufacturing sites, we are driven by one purpose: to deliver more for the millions of people living with chronic diseases – and this facility will help us achieve just that."
Preliminary clearing and foundational works are underway to ready the 56-acre area, with construction anticipated to be finalized between 2027 and 2029.
A press release announcing the plans also said that Novo Nordisk intends to increase investment in production and plans to invest approximately $6.8 billion in production compared to actual investments of USD $3.9 billion last year (not including acquisitions), to increase supply.
The Denmark-headquartered medical company currently employs 66,000 people across 80 countries.
The widespread interest in its diabetes drug distributed under the brand name Ozempic and anti-obesity drug Wegovy contributed to the company becoming Europe's biggest company by market cap, with a value of $658 billion as of June 26, 2024.
Recent research found that Wegovy can produce significant results "for up to four years," Newsweek reported in May.
The injectable prescription drug was approved by the FDA in 2021 for chronic weight loss management.
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