Drug-maker Novo Nordisk to spend $4.1bn on construction of US Wegovy facility
25 June 2024
Danish drug-maker Novo Nordisk is to spend $4.1 billion to build a new US facility to fill injection pens for its popular weight-loss treatment Wegovy.
The new facility will also produce injection pens for the diabetes drug Ozempic, according to the company.
Construction of the plant at Novo’s existing main U.S. manufacturing site in Clayton, North Carolina, will be completed between 2027 and 2029, and will add 1,000 workers to the 2,500 already employed there.
Booming demand for Wegovy in the United States and the 10 other markets where it has so far been launched have made Novo Nordisk Europe’s most valuable listed company.
But the success has left Novo facing shortages and forced to limit the number of patients taking the once-weekly injection.
Some experts predict that sales for obesity treatments could reach about $150 billion annually by the early 2030s, according to Reuters.