Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has unveiled its plans to invest $4.1bn to build a second fill and finishing manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina.
The investment would expand the company’s ability to produce current and future injectable treatments for obesity and other serious chronic diseases.
It will add 1.4 million ft2 of space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes, doubling the combined space of all three of its existing facilities in North Carolina.
Also, the expansion will create 1,000 new jobs, besides the nearly 2,500 employees already working in the region, a central hub for innovation and biotechnology in the US.
Novo Nordisk said that it is one of the largest manufacturing investments in its history.
Novo Nordisk president and CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said: “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.
“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 expanded facility will be designed in an efficient and environmentally sustainable way to deliver the highest-quality products to patients around the world.
It will use advanced technology, such as roof-top solar panels and water strategies, with early clearing and foundational work already underway to prepare the 56-acre facility footprint.
The company aims to obtain LEED Gold certification for the new facility, a standard of excellence in constructing healthy, efficient, carbon and cost-saving green buildings.
Construction will gradually be finalized between 2027 and 2029. around 2,000 external contractors will be engaged at the height of the project.
This year, Novo Nordisk will raise its actual investments to $6.8bn in production compared to actual investments of $3.9bn last year to enhance supply.
Novo Nordisk quality & IT product supply executive vice president Henrik Wulff said: “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.
“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.”
