Eighteen months after Novo Nordisk purchased a plant in the Czech Republic from Novavax, the Danish drugmaker said it is set to kick off the manufacturing of “supportive proteins” for next-generation diabetes and obesity drugs at the facility.
The opening of the site, which employs 300, comes after Novo invested 3.5 billion Czech koruna ($168 million) in enhancements after buying it from Novavax for $200 million.
“We have rebuilt and modernized the facility to meet Novo Nordisk’s global manufacturing standards, including major upgrades to production technologies, digital infrastructure and quality systems,” Jakub Kronovetr, Novo’s general manager of its Czech production, said in a release.
The facility previously was dedicated to the production of vaccines. As Novavax was gearing up to manufacture its COVID-19 shot in 2020, it gained the site—which then employed 150—in a $167 million acquisition of Praha Vaccines.
The plan at the time, with the help of India’s Serum Institute, was to produce 1 billion doses of its vaccine there annually. In August of 2024, Novavax said that the plant was up for sale.
In another Novo Nordisk manufacturing update, the company announced locally that it will invest 200 million yuan ($29 million) in its plant in Tianjin, China, to increase its production of injection pens. The move is to help Novo meet medication demands in the country, it said.
The new Tianjin outlay comes on top of a $112 million investment unveiled in July of last year to upgrade the testing laboratory at the facility. In 2024, Novo revealed a plan to spend 4 billion yuan ($556 million) in its Tianjin facility as part of a sterile preparation expansion project.
The facility, which Novo has operated since 1994, is one of the company’s seven worldwide manufacturing hubs. Tianjin is a coastal port city 75 miles southeast of Beijing.