Demand for Novo Nordisk’s metabolic disorder drugs has far outstripped its ability to supply them, contributing to shortages of these products. The pharmaceutical company is positioning itself to meet the demand for current products and future ones with the expansion of an existing production site.
Novo Nordisk said late last week that it will invest more than 16 billion Danish kroner (about €2.1 billion or $2.3 billion) to expand a facility in Chartres, France, more than doubling the footprint of the site. It’s the company’s second manufacturing announcement this month. In early November, Novo Nordisk said it will invest 42 billion Danish krone (about $6.1 billion) to expand a manufacturing site in Denmark, where the company is based.
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The company’s France production site was established in 1961 and currently employs about 1,600 workers charged with making Novo Nordisk diabetes products, including insulin. The facility also produces drugs for hemophilia and growth disorders. Novo Nordisk said the expansion of this facility will be made with the manufacturing of multiple products in mind, but it noted that these plans include the production of its metabolic disease drugs that target the GLP-1 receptor.
Ozempic, a GLP-1 agonist approved for managing type 2 diabetes, is Novo Nordisk’s top-selling product, accounting for 65.6 billion Danish krone (about $9.4 billion) in 2023 sales through the third quarter. The company also sells the GLP-1 agonist Wegovy for weight loss. That drug generated 21.7 billion Danish krone (about $3 billion) in 2023 revenue through the third quarter.
The main rivals to Ozempic and Wegovy are Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound, the latter of which received its FDA approval earlier this month for chronic weight management. Soon after Zepbound’s regulatory nod, Lilly announced plans to invest about $2.5 billion in the construction of a new manufacturing site in Germany responsible for production of injectable medicines. That planned expansion follows billions of dollars in capital investment at Lilly sites in the U.S.
Construction at Novo Nordisk’s France site has already started and will be finalized between 2026 and 2028. The Denmark and France manufacturing sites are two of five facilities that Novo Nordisk describes as its strategic production sites. The others are in the U.S., Brazil, and China.
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“This significant investment announced today confirms the importance of our French manufacturing site, one of our strategic production sites, as a cornerstone of the growth we are experiencing as a company,” Lone Charlotte Larsen, corporate vice president of Novo Nordisk Production Chartres, said in a prepared statement. “By maximising the skills and infrastructure we already have on the site, we are expanding our capacity in an efficient way.”
Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Scanpix Denmark/AFP, via Getty Images
