While much of the recent GLP-1 saga has been written in the U.S., Novo Nordisk continues to expand its semaglutide empire across the globe and make inroads into large markets like Brazil.
Now, in a bid to boost its production capacity in Latin America’s most populous country, Novo is plugging 6.4 billion Brazilian reais (roughly $1.09 billion) into an expansion of its manufacturing plant in the Brazilian city of Montes Claros.
The investment, which marks one of the largest ever for pharmaceuticals in Brazil, will “significantly” bolster the facility’s capacity to crank out a variety of injectables, including GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo said in a Portuguese-language press release.
Novo expects the project to create a whopping 600 new jobs once complete. Work on the plant upgrade has already kicked off, and the expanded facility is set to begin producing drugs in 2028.
The expansion will add new aseptic production processes, a warehouse and a fresh quality control laboratory.
The Danish drugmaker is designing the facility with its ecological footprint in mind. Novo plans to use low-carbon building materials wherever possible, supply 100% of the facility’s energy with solar photovoltaic panels and incorporate water management strategies such as rainwater harvesting and reuse for production.
“With this expansion of the Montes Claros site, we are strengthening our global production capacity, which will enable us to meet both current and future demand for innovative medicines worldwide,” Henrik Wulff, executive vice president of chemistry, production, control and product supply at Novo Nordisk, said in a statement.
Brazil, where Novo has been present since 1990, represents one of the Danish drugmaker’s five biggest markets, Reuters reported this week, citing company comments.
Aside from its manufacturing footprint in Montes Claros, Novo also operates an administrative office in São Paulo. The company currently employs around 2,000 people in the country.
Brazil also offers a significant opportunity in obesity treatment, with Novo noting (PDF) in its latest annual report that Brazil was among six countries included in the company’s recent Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative that aims to hasten the prevention of childhood obesity in disadvantaged urban communities.
But, while Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy for diabetes and obesity are already quite popular in the country, the drugs’ active ingredient, semaglutide, is slated to lose patent protection in Brazil in March 2026. In turn, local copycat competitors are already circling Novo’s wagon.
Last month, the CEO of Brazilian drugmaker Hypera said his company planned to launch a semaglutide generic in the country “as soon as the patent expires” next year, Reuters said in a separate report last month, citing comments made on a Hypera earnings call.
Meanwhile, Brazilian biotech compatriot Biomm last year inked a licensing and supply deal with India’s Biocon to help market generic Ozempic in Brazil, Reuters pointed out.
Over in the U.S., where much of Novo’s GLP-1 business is concentrated, the company seems to have largely escaped the manufacturing and supply constraints that had plagued semaglutide for the better part of the last four years.
In late February, the FDA formally ended the shortage of semaglutide in the U.S., following several years of gung-ho expansion efforts by Novo at manufacturing sites around the world.
At the time, Novo said all semaglutide doses were being “continuously shipped” to wholesalers and “meeting or exceeding expected U.S. demand.” The company is also running its production facilities 24/7 these days to help keep up with the enormous appetite for its metabolic drugs.