Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk to spend $4.1 billion to boost production

By Eleanor Laise

New North Carolina facility to produce obesity treatment Wegovy and other injectable drugs

Novo Nordisk on Monday said it will invest $4.1 billion in a new Clayton, N.C., manufacturing facility as it works to meet surging demand for its popular injectable drugs Wegovy and Ozempic.

For the full year 2024, Novo Nordisk said it plans to allocate $6.8 billion to production, up 74% from a year earlier.

The North Carolina facility represents one of the biggest manufacturing investments in the Danish drugmaker's history, Novo said in a release, adding about 1.4 million square feet of production space and doubling the combined square footage of the company's existing facilities in North Carolina. Construction will be finalized between 2027 and 2029, the company said.

The three lowest doses of weight-loss drug Wegovy currently have limited availability, according to the Food and Drug Administration's drug-shortages database.

The production move comes one month after Novo's weight-loss-drug rival Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) announced a similar investment, saying it would make a new $5.3 billion commitment to a Lebanon, Ind., manufacturing site. Several doses of Lilly's weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro have limited availability through the second quarter, according to the FDA database.

Novo Nordisk has said that the number of new U.S. patients starting Wegovy each week has roughly quadrupled since the end of last year, to at least 25,000. "Based on the progress we've made in building manufacturing capacity, our plan to gradually increase shipments of the three lowest dose strengths of Wegovy is working," the company said in a May supply update.

Clayton was also the location of the company's first manufacturing site in the U.S. The new facility will add 1,000 new jobs, in addition to the 2,500 Novo employees already working in the area, the company said.

Novo's American depositary receipts (NVO) were down 0.2% Monday afternoon and have gained 37% in the year to date.

-Eleanor Laise

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06-24-24 1537ET

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