Dive Brief:
- Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk will spend 15.9 billion Danish kroner, or about $2.3 billion, to expand manufacturing capacity for future chronic disease medicines at a site north of Copenhagen, Denmark.
- The announcement Monday follows a nearly $1 billion project to boost production of clinical trial drugs, and a $2.4 billion project focused on ingredients for oral and injectable drugs that started in late 2021. Novo has also added supply to meet demand for its popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy.
- Novo says the latest expansion will “ensure the continuous development” of late-phase drugs in its pipeline, with production of drug ingredients expected to start by early 2029. The project will create 340 jobs when the plant is fully equipped.
Dive Insight:
Novo has worked to increase its manufacturing capacity for the past couple of years, targeting capacity for new and future oral and injectable medications to head off supply crunches like it has had with Ozempic and Wegovy
The company’s diabetes and weight-loss drug Wegovy has been in high demand since its approval in 2021. Last year the company struggled to keep pace manufacturing it as well as Ozempic, which is being used off label for weight loss. The company had expected production problems would be resolved by the end of 2022, but just last month announced it would ration starter Wegovy doses in the U.S.
According to Bloomberg, the new investment is unrelated to Ozempic or Wegovy supply. Novo did not return BioPharma Dive’s request for comment by publication.
The planned expansion is meant to support Novo’s pipeline of medicines for “serious chronic diseases.” Beyond diabetes and obesity, Novo is also developing late-stage drugs for non-alcoholic liver disease, Alzheimer’s, hemophilia, sickle cell and heart disease.
Construction on the 65,000-square-meter facility, which will make active pharmaceutical ingredients, has already begun, Novo said.