Novo Nordisk has invested €432m ($501m) to upgrade its facility in Ireland to ensure the drugmaker can meet the anticipated high demand for oral weight loss drugs.
Novo’s site in Monksland, Athlone, is one of 16 facilities the company has across the world. The expansion of the 45-acre tabletting facility is expected to be completed by 2028, though construction has already begun.
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The site’s existing 260 employees will focus on delivering oral glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs). The Danish drugmaker recently won US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for oral Wegovy (semaglutide), with the drug forecast to be a major growth driver for Novo. Novo has also filed the new product for approval in other markets, including the EU and UK, with decisions due this year.
GlobalData’s patient-based forecasts indicate that the Wegovy pill will generate $4.5bn in annual sales in 2031. However, given the strong early uptake for the drug already in the US, this number is likely to rise.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Novo said the investment, which is via an upgrade and retrofitting of the existing facility, will enhance its ability to manufacture oral GLP-1RAs.
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By GlobalDataKasper Bødker Mejlvang, Novo Nordisk’s executive vice president for CMC and product supply, said: “With the investment in the Athlone facility, Novo Nordisk is expanding its production capacities for oral products, which will strengthen our ability to meet both current and future demand, outside the US.”
In 2024, Novo Nordisk announced plans for a $4.1bn facility in North Carolina, tasked with making both the Wegovy pill and the original subcutaneous version for US patients.
The announcement comes as Novo’s main rival in the obesity market, Eli Lilly, is also outlaying significant funds to boost manufacturing in key markets. In January 2026, the company revealed plans for a fourth mega-facility it intends to build in the US as part of a $27bn investment drive in the country. Some of these facilities, including an expansion to one in Puerto Rico, will produce oral weight loss therapies.
Eli Lilly’s candidate, currently under regulatory review in the US, is forecast to generate $14.8bn in 2031 sales, according to a GlobalData analysis of markets in the US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
Ireland is already a major GLP-1RA manufacturing base for Lilly. The big pharma company makes tirzepatide, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for its Mounjaro and Zepbound drugs, at its factory in Kinsale, County Cork.
