Dive Brief:
- Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S will invest $65 million to expand its existing manufacturing facility in North Carolina, adding to a site already in the midst of a major build out.
- Novo plans to bring on board at least two dozen new employees after the expansion is completed, which is expected to occur sometime in the fourth quarter of 2019. Ramping up to full operations would follow in 2020, according to a company spokesperson.
- The facility, which has been based in Clayton since the 1990s, carries out formulation, filling, inspection, assembly and packaging of insulins as well as GLP-1 diabetes and obesity medicines.
Dive Insight:
Novo Nordisk bough the Clayton, North Carolina facility in 1991, and it became operational in 1996, employing around 1,000 people.
More recently, in 2016, Novo broke ground on its $1.8 billion diabetes medicine production plant, called DAPI-US. The DAPI facility is due to become fully operational in 2020, employing up to 2,500 people at peak construction and creating 700 new jobs at completion.
Located about 20 miles southeast of downtown Raleigh, the site places Novo near the "Research Triangle" hub of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill.
Even with that major of investment already in the works, Novo still sees a need to add to its presence in the area. The $65 million will be invested in Novo's Diabetes Finished Products (DFP) Facility.
"We are planning to expand our DFP facility because we will need the additional production capacity to fulfill the growing demand for our diabetes and obesity medicines," a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement to BioPharma Dive.
An agreement with Johnston County — where Clayton is located — will provide up to $1.9 million in performance-based grants in support of the current expansion, and potentially more in the event of future expansion.
Diabetes medicines are Novo's core business, and success in the space has propelled the company to its current leadership position. Yet pricing pressures in the U.S. and higher competition has meant gloomy revenue forecasts for diabetes drugmakers.
According to results for 2017, sales of Novo's diabetes medicines grew 4% year over year, led by gains from Tresiba (insulin degludec) and Victoza. Approval of the GLP-1 Ozempic (semaglutide) in the U.S. should help the company stay competitive moving forward.