Novo Nordisk plans multi-billion Denmark manufacturing expansion

Credit: Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk has announced plans to invest over 42 billion Danish kroner (nearly £5 billion) starting in 2023, to expand its manufacturing facilities in Kalundborg, Denmark.

According to the pharma company, the financing will add to global capacity: from manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) through to packaging. Most of the investment will be focused on API capacity.

The new 170,000m² API facility will be designed as a multi-product facility, with flexibility to accommodate current and future processes, Novo Nordisk noted. The investment, which includes GLP-1 products, will support Novo Nordisk in its ability to meet future market demands.

A focus on sustainability

Novo Nordisk highlighted that internal calculations show that when operational, as part of the future facility’s proposed sustainability credentials, it “will reduce water consumption with approximately 40 percent and energy consumption with approximately 50 percent compared to similar API processes in other facilities.”

The nearly £5 billion investment “confirms the importance of utilising our existing sites, including in Denmark, as cornerstones for not only the growth we see but also to expand as fast as possible by utilising all the infrastructure, knowledge and competences we already have,” remarked Henrik Wulff, Executive Vice President of Product Supply, Quality & IT for Novo Nordisk.

The construction projects will be finalised from the end of 2025 through to 2029. Once equipped, the facility is expected to create a total of 800 jobs: 700 jobs in the new API facility and 100 jobs in the new packaging facility.

Novo Nordisk’s Denmark manufacturing facilities

Currently, Novo Nordisk’s Kalundborg production facilities manufacture products for treating obesity and diabetes as well as several biopharmaceutical products, employing around 4,400 employees.

In June 2023, the company announced its plans to invest €2.1 billion to build a new 65,000m² facility in Hillerød, Denmark, that will be designed as a multi-product facility, with flexibility to accommodate new processes. “This important investment will ensure the continuous development of our late-phase pipeline into deliveries of important medicines for treatments to patients worldwide”, Wulff declared in the original annoucement.

Key developments in pharmaceutical manufacturing – September 2023