Novo Nordisk today announced plans to invest $4.1 billion to build a new manufacturing facility in North Carolina.
The Denmark-based company will build a second fill and finishing manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, to grow its ability to produce current and future injectable treatments for people with obesity and other serious chronic diseases.
Novo Nordisk said the expansion will add 1.4 million sq. ft. of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes. It doubles the combined square footage of all three of the company’s existing facilities in North Carolina. The expansion will also add 1,000 new jobs to the nearly 2,500 employees already working in the region.
“It took us a century to reach 40 million patients, but through this expansion and continued investment in our global production, we’re building Novo Nordisk’s ability to serve millions more people living with serious chronic diseases in the future,” CEO and President Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said in a news release. “This is yet another real signal of our efforts to scale up our production to meet the growing global need for our life-changing medicines and the patients of tomorrow.”
The company has begun early clearing and foundational work to prepare the 56-acre facility footprint. Construction will be finalized between 2027 and 2029.
The new facility will have roof-top solar panels and innovative water strategies to be more efficient and environmentally sustainable, according to Novo Nordisk. The company’s goal is to obtain LEED Gold certification.
“Clayton was the first manufacturing site for Novo Nordisk in the US, and this new, large-scale investment confirms the continued importance of our production facilities there as cornerstones of our company’s growth,” said Henrik Wulff, executive vice president of product supply, quality & IT. “For decades, we have partnered to foster a well-trained, dedicated and diverse local workforce in North Carolina. In Clayton and across our global manufacturing sites, we are driven by one purpose: to deliver more for the millions of people living with chronic diseases – and this facility will help us achieve just that.”
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