Novo Nordisk broke ground for its new diabetes active pharmaceutical ingredients (DAPI) production facility in Clayton, North Carolina, on 28 March 2016.

The ground breaking ceremony was attended by North Carolina governor Pat McCory, Novo Nordisk president Lars Rebien Sorensen, and community members, employees and policy makers.

The company is investing approximately $1.85bn in the development of the production facility, which is expected to be fully operational by 2020.

The project is expected to receive approximately $94m in tax rebates from Johnston County over a period of 15 years.

The investment is part of the company’s strategy to invest approximately $2bn in production facilities in Clayton, US, as well as Malov and Kalundborg in Denmark.

Details of Novo Nordisk’s DAPI production facility

The new DAPI manufacturing plant will occupy an area of 833,000ft²and will have a footprint of 147,639ft².

It is being built adjacent to Novo Nordisk’s existing 452,084ft² (42,000m²) facility, which is involved in the formulation, filling and packaging of diabetes medicines. The existing plant also assembles and packages Flex Pen and Flex Touch prefilled insulin devices for the US market.

The new plant will produce APIs for a range of current and future GLP-1 and insulin products for Novo Nordisk.

Once the new plant becomes fully operational, the diabetes API production facility in Clayton will be named DAPI-US (Diabetes Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients-US) and will form part of the Danish diabetes API production facility in Kalundborg, which will be named DAPI-Denmark.

Benefits of the new plant

The site will ensure the production capacity for diabetes care products and play an important role in enabling Novo Nordisk to meet future demand for diabetes medicines in the US. The expansion will also reinforce Novo Nordisk to continue as a global leader in diabetes care.

The project is expected to generate approximately 2,500 jobs during the construction phase and 700 permanent jobs, offering an average salary of $68,000, which is higher than the current average salary. The existing facility in Clayton currently employs more than 700 people.

Marketing commentary

Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare organisation based in Denmark with 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. It has experience in developing treatments for other serious chronic conditions such as haemophilia, growth disorder and obesity.

Novo Nordisk manufactures products in five areas, which are diabetes care, haemophilia, growth hormone therapy, obesity and hormone replacement therapy.

The company employs approximately 41,000 people in 75 countries and markets its products in more than 180 countries.