New Novo Nordisk manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina.
Courtesy: Novo Nordisk
Nordisk on Monday said it will spend $4.1 billion to build a new manufacturing plant in Clayton, North Carolina, in a bid to increase supply of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the diabetes treatment Ozempic and other injectable therapies. .
Demand for Wegovy and Ozempic has outstripped supply over the past year, causing intermittent shortages in the United States and forcing the Danish drugmaker to make large investments to increase its manufacturing footprint. The company said it plans to invest $6.8 billion in production this year, up from about $4 billion last year.
The new manufacturing facility will be responsible for filling and packaging syringes and injection pens for the medications, according to a company statement.
“This investment really gives us the opportunity to care for more patients,” Doug Langa, head of Novo Nordisk's North American operations, said in an interview. “The most important thing is that I think the other key message here is that there is more investment in the United States, so I think we are very proud of that.”
Construction on the 1.4 million square foot facility has begun and is expected to be completed between 2027 and 2029, Novo Nordisk said. The company said 1,000 workers will work at the site, adding to the 2,500 employees already working at its three existing manufacturing plants in North Carolina.
That includes two sites already operational in Clayton: one responsible for fill-and-finish work and another dedicated to producing the active ingredient in drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic. The company also has a plant in Durham, North Carolina, responsible for manufacturing and packaging oral medications, such as its Rybelsus diabetes pill, and another facility in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Twelve other production sites are located in Denmark, France, China, Japan, Algeria, Brazil, Iran and Russia, according to a Novo Nordisk spokesperson.
According to a Food and Drug Administration database, three lower doses, the so-called initial doses of Wegovy, are currently in short supply in the United States due to high demand. Patients start Wegovy at lower doses and gradually increase the amount every four weeks until the target dose is reached.
Wegovy and Ozempic are part of a class of medications called GLP-1 that mimic hormones produced in the intestine to suppress a person's appetite and regulate blood sugar.
About 35,000 American patients on average start Wegovy each week today, up from about 27,000 in May, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement. Still, Langa said the company is being “very purposeful” about how many lower doses it is bringing to the U.S. market to ensure that patients who have already started taking Wegovy can continue treatment at higher doses.
Rival pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly It has also committed billions of dollars to increase manufacturing capacity for its popular weight loss and diabetes GLP-1, Zepbound and Mounjaro. Additionally, the company has several production plants in North Carolina.
