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Danish company Novo Nordisk announced Monday that it plans to invest $4.1 billion to build a new facility in Clayton, North Carolina.
CNBC reported that the facility is intended to increase supply of the pharma company’s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, which have faced shortages over the past year.
At the new facility, which will be Novo Nordisk’s second fill and finishing manufacturing plant, the company plans to produce current and future injectable treatments for people with obesity and other chronic illnesses. The new 1.4 million square feet of production space will double the combined square footage of the company’s existing facilities in North Carolina, the company said, and also add 1,000 new jobs to its existing 2,500 employees in the region.
Construction of the facility will be finalized between 2027 and 2029, the company said.
“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,” Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk, said in a statement.
Overall, the company said it planned to invest $6.8 billion in production this year, compared to $3.9 billion last year.
CNBC reported that around 35,000 U.S. patients on average now start on Wegovy each week, according to Novo Nordisk, compared to 27,000 in May. Eli Lilly, which produces similar treatments known as Zepbound and Mounjaro, also has production plants in North Carolina, CNBC noted.