Novo Nordisk, which recently agreed to acquire three Catalent fill-finish sites, has announced plans to invest $4.1 billion to build a second fill and finishing manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, and grow its ability to produce current and future injectable treatments for people with obesity and other serious chronic diseases.
 
The expansion will add 1.4 million square feet of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes, doubling the combined square footage of all three of the company’s existing facilities in North Carolina. It will also add 1,000 new jobs, besides the nearly 2,500 Novo Nordisk employees already working in the region, a central hub for innovation and biotechnology in the United States.
 
“It took us a century to reach 40 million patients, but through this expansion and continued investment in our global production, we’re building Novo Nordisk’s ability to serve millions more people living with serious chronic diseases in the future,” said Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk. “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.”
 
Utilizing state-of-the-art technology, roof-top solar panels and innovative water strategies, the facility is designed in an efficient and environmentally sustainable way to deliver the highest-quality products to patients around the world.
 
“Clayton was the first manufacturing site for Novo Nordisk in the US, and this new, large-scale investment confirms the continued importance of our production facilities there as cornerstones of our company’s growth,” said Henrik Wulff, executive vice president, Product Supply, Quality & IT, Novo Nordisk.
 
Early clearing and foundational work are already underway to prepare the 56-acre facility footprint. Construction will gradually be finalized between 2027 and 2029. Around 2,000 external contractors will be engaged at the height of the project.
 
In 2024, Novo Nordisk will increase actual investments in production and plans to invest approximately USD 6.8 billion in production compared to actual investments of USD 3.9 billion last year to increase supply.