Denmark-based pharma giant Novo Nordisk has announced plans to invest DKr8.5bn ($1.2bn) to establish a new production facility in Odense, Denmark.
Announcing the news yesterday (16 December), the company said that the new site will include a production facility manufacturing multiple therapies for rare diseases, including haemophilia. It will also include a warehouse covering more than 40,000m².
The company’s haemophilia portfolio includes Alhemo (concizumab) and its antibody asset Mim8, with the Phase III FRONTIER2 trial (NCT05053139) in haemophilia A completing earlier this year. Novo Nordisk has not yet published data from the study. Novo Nordisk is also running a Phase I trial (NCT06649630) of its oral antibody, Inno8, for haemophilia.
This announement comes just days after Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk, closed a $16.5bn deal to acquire Catalent, a global contract development and manufacturing organisation. The deal was greenlighted by the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission. It will boost the manufacturing capability for its glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) Wegovy and Ozempic, which have suffered global shortages.
Construction work on the site has already commenced and Novo Nordisk expects the facilities to be completed in 2027. Up to 1,000 external employees will be involved in the construction, and the site will produce 400 new and permanent jobs.
Speaking on the new Denmark facility, Henrik Wulff, executive vice-president of product supply, quality and IT of Novo Nordisk, said: “The facility will utilise advanced technology and innovative equipment to ensure the highest quality to patients and meet the growing global demand for our life-changing medicines.
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“We are proud to build on our heritage in Denmark and look forward to embarking on this journey in Odense, a well-connected city with a dynamic community and talented workforce,” he added.
Novo Nordisk also plans to plant 4,000 new trees at the site in an effort to preserve local nature. The new facility buildings will also be equipped with solar panels for on-site electricity generation, whilst the local landscape will be reconstructed using excess soil, wooden materials and other sustainable resources to create lakes, forests and community spaces open to the public.
Novo Nordisk is Europe’s most valuable listed company, having found huge success with its weight-loss and type 2 diabetes injections Wegovy and Ozempic. The company expects to significantly increase production this year, announcing in June that it expects to invest $6.8bn this year, up from $3.9bn in 2023.
