Ozempic craze: Novo Nordisk invests $4.1B in US to expand manufacturing

Novo Nordisk is investing $4.1 billion to expand its U.S. manufacturing capacity to address the growing demand for its highly sought-after weight-loss-related drugs. 

The Danish pharmaceutical manufacturer will also boost its current production investment this year to $6.8 billion, up significantly from $3.9 billion in 2023.

With the funds, Novo Nordisk said it plans to add 1.4 million square feet of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes, which will essentially double the combined square footage of all three of the company’s existing facilities in North Carolina. As a result of the expansion, the company will also add 1,000 new jobs to the nearly 2,500 Novo Nordisk employees already working in the region. 

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This will mark one of the largest manufacturing investments in Novo Nordisk’s history, underscoring its confidence in the diabetes and obesity drug market, which Morgan Stanley projected will reach $105 billion in 2030. 

“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,” Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said.

The company has been facing challenges with production capacity due to the increasing demand for its drugs in recent years, namely Wegovy and Ozempic.

Both of these medications have garnered significant attention since 2022, being endorsed by high-profile individuals and social media users for their weight loss effects, causing demand to exceed supply.

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In May, the Danish pharmaceutical giant told FOX Business that at least 25,000 Americans were beginning treatment with Wegovy each week, about “four times” the number of U.S. patients starting the medication compared with December 2023.

Still life of Wegovy an injectable prescription weight loss medicine that has helped people with obesity.  (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)

According to Morgan Stanley, which re-evaluated the global market for obesity drugs in light of extreme demand across the industry, the market could reach as high as $144 billion over the next six years. Sales of branded obesity drugs in 2023 alone reached $6 billion. 

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Morgan Stanley analysts projected that the number of people taking these drugs could make up 9% of the population by 2035, which is five times the number today.

They also projected that “demand for these medicines could be turbocharged if there’s broadening evidence that these drugs improve outcomes in the hundreds of obesity-related ailments.”