Novo Nordisk’s new manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina.
Provided by: Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk The company said Monday it would spend $4.1 billion to build a new manufacturing plant in Clayton, North Carolina, to bolster supplies of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, diabetes treatment Ozempic and other injectables.
Demand for Vigovi and Ozempic has outstripped supply over the past year, causing intermittent shortages in the United States and forcing the Danish drugmaker to invest heavily in expanding its manufacturing footprint. The company said it plans to increase production investments to $6.8 billion this year from about $4 billion last year.
The new manufacturing facility will be responsible for filling and packaging the drug’s syringes and injection pens, according to a company statement.
“This investment gives us the opportunity to serve more patients,” Doug Langa, head of Novo Nordisk’s North American operations, said in an interview. “I think the key thing is this is another important message that we’re further investing in the U.S., so we’re very proud of it.”
Novo Nordisk said construction on the 1.4 million-square-foot facility has already begun and is expected to be completed between 2027 and 2029. The company said the facility will employ 1,000 people, in addition to the 2,500 employees who work at its three existing manufacturing plants in North Carolina.
That includes two facilities already operating in Clayton: one that handles fill and finish operations and another that is dedicated to manufacturing the active ingredient in the company’s diabetes drug Rybelsus. The company also has a facility in Durham, North Carolina, that manufactures and packages oral medications, and another in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.
The other 12 production sites are in Denmark, France, China, Japan, Algeria, Brazil, Iran and Russia, a Novo Nordisk spokesman said.
According to a Food and Drug Administration database, there is currently a shortage of the three lower doses of Wegovy in the U.S. due to high demand. Patients start off taking Wegovy at a low dose and gradually increase it every four weeks until they reach their target dose.
Wegovy and Ozempic are in a class of drugs called GLP-1 that mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar levels.
A Novo Nordisk spokesman said in a statement that an average of about 35,000 patients are now starting Wegoby each week in the United States, up from about 27,000 in May. Still, Langa said the company is being “very cautious” about how many lower doses of the drug it brings to the U.S. market, so that patients already taking Wegoby can continue their treatment at higher doses.
Rival pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly The company is also investing billions of dollars to build out manufacturing capacity for its popular GLP-1 drugs, Zepbound and Maunjaro, for weight loss and diabetes treatment. The company also has several manufacturing plants in North Carolina.
Correction: Novo Nordisk’s existing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, handles fill-and-finish operations and production of the active ingredient for the company’s diabetes drug Rybelsus. An earlier version of this story misstated these functions.
