- In 2024, Novo Nordisk plans to boost its current investments, aiming to allocate USD 6.8 billion towards production, a significant increase from the previous year's investment of USD 3.9 billion*.
Bagsværd, Denmark, 24 June 2024 – Novo Nordisk today announced plans to invest 4.1 billion US dollars (approx 27 billion Danish kroner) to build a second fill and finishing manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, and grow its ability to produce current and future injectable treatments for people with obesity and other serious chronic diseases.
Marking one of the largest manufacturing investments in Novo Nordisk’s history, the expansion will add 1.4 million square feet of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes, doubling the combined square footage of all three of the company’s existing facilities in North Carolina. It will also add 1,000 new jobs, besides the nearly 2,500 Novo Nordisk employees already working in the region, a central hub for innovation and biotechnology in the United States.
“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,” said Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk. “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.”
Utilising state-of-the-art technology, roof-top solar panels and innovative water strategies, the facility is designed in an efficient and environmentally sustainable way to deliver the highest-quality products to patients around the world. The goal is to obtain LEED Gold certification, recognised as a standard of excellence in constructing healthy, efficient, carbon and cost-saving green buildings.
“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, Product Supply, Quality & IT, Novo Nordisk. “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.”
Early clearing and foundational work are already underway to prepare the 56-acre facility footprint. Construction will gradually be finalized between 2027 and 2029. Around 2,000 external contractors will be engaged at the height of the project.
“It’s a historic day for Johnston County,” said Butch Lawter, Chair of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners, who, during today’s press conference, announced county grants to further support the expansion project. “Thirty-one years ago, Novo Nordisk decided to make a new home here in Clayton. Then, in 2016, they announced a new facility right across the street - the single largest life sciences investment on state record at the time. Today, they’re breaking that record again… with a third facility, 1,000 new jobs and a vote of confidence in the partnerships we have forged in the community over the decades.”
In 2024, Novo Nordisk will increase actual investments in production and plans to invest approx USD 6.8 billion (DKK 45 billion) in production compared to actual investments of USD 3.9 (DKK 26 billion) last year* to increase supply.
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About Novo Nordisk manufacturing
Novo Nordisk has a global manufacturing setup with five strategic production sites located in Denmark, US, France, Brazil and China. All Novo Nordisk’s medicines are manufactured at these sites and subsequently distributed to patients around the globe. This includes producing almost half of the world’s insulin, GLP-1 medicines for the treatment of diabetes and obesity and medicines to treat rare diseases such as haemophilia and growth disorders. Novo Nordisk’s manufacturing unit has almost 20,000 employees who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality to patients globally in an efficient and environmentally sustainable way.
About Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk is a leading global healthcare company, founded in 1923 and headquartered in Denmark. Our purpose is to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases, built upon our heritage in diabetes. We do so by pioneering scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to our medicines, and working to prevent and ultimately cure disease. Novo Nordisk employs about 66,000 people in 80 countries and markets its products in around 170 countries. For more information, visit novonordisk.com, Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and YouTube.
