DENMARK – Novo Nordisk, a maker of diabetes drugs, has announced that it will invest 17 billion Danish crowns (US$2.58 billion) in increasing production capacity in Denmark.
Novo, the world’s largest producer of diabetes drugs, stated that the investment will include the construction of three new manufacturing plants as well as the expansion of one existing facility in Kalundborg, Denmark.
According to the company, the facilities will primarily produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), which are the main biologically active components of medicines, as well as assemble and package current and future oral and injectable drugs.
The project is expected to be completed in 2027, according to the company. Novo expects the expansion to add 400 jobs to the Kalundborg site, which already employs 3,200 people.
The announcement comes at a time when the company is experiencing rapid growth. Novo Nordisk announced in February that it would invest US$1.3 billion in capital projects in 2021 to increase capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
In February, Novo Nordisk announced US$82 million investment in Mlv, Denmark, to increase its capacity to manufacture Rybelsus.
Novo, which has nine manufacturing facilities worldwide, recently finished US$2 billion API facility in Clayton, North Carolina.
The company will soon open a new oral finished products facility in nearby Durham, which it purchased from troubled Purdue Pharma in 2019.
Novo has introduced new, innovative GLP-1 drugs for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, including a once-daily pill version of its semaglutide drug.
The investment in Kalundborg more than doubles the company’s total investment in its Danish plant over the last two decades.
Novo Nordisk and Dicerna announced the merger agreement on November 18, and Dicerna’s board of directors recommended the deal to its shareholders on November 24.
However, Novo Nordisk has stumbled just before the historic acquisition of Dicerna, a biotech firm based in the United States.
The legal ramifications of Novo Nordisk’s US$3.3 billion acquisition of US-based biotech firm Dicerna.
Dicerna shareholders have filed separate lawsuits against the company and its board of directors, alleging violations of the US Securities Exchange Act, according to Law Street Media.
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