Amid the important launches for oral diabetes drug Rybelsus and obesity medicine Wegovy, the only problem for Novo Nordisk, it seems, is meeting growing demand.
On Monday, the Danish drugmaker revealed a move that will help accomplish that as it will invest $2.58 billion into expanding production capacity.
Novo Nordisk will build three new manufacturing facilities and expand its sprawling site in Kalundborg, Denmark.
Most of the investment will allow Novo Nordisk to increase its manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), it said. A smaller segment is reserved for assembly and packaging of the oral and injectable products.
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The company expects the project to be complete in 2027. With the expansion, Novo plans to add 400 jobs to the Kalundborg site, which already employs 3,200.
“(This) is an important step in building and ensuring future capacity for production of our current and future oral injectable product portfolio,” said Henrik Wulff, Novo Nordisk EVP of product supply, quality and IT, said in a release. “Kalundborg is currently the cornerstone of our production of API and the expansion of manufacturing capacity is important to meeting the future demands of patients.”
The announcement comes during a period of much expansion for the company. In February, Novo Nordisk revealed it would spend $1.3 billion on capital projects in 2021 to gear up to add capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
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Also in February, Novo Nordisk said it was spending $82 million to increase its capacity to manufacture Rybelsus in Måløv, Denmark.
The company recently completed a $2 billion API facility in Clayton, N.C. In nearby Durham, the company will soon open a new oral finished products facility it purchased in 2019 from troubled Purdue Pharma.