Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company based in Denmark, announced plans in November 2023 to expand its existing manufacturing capacity by building a new active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) facility in Kalundborg, Denmark.
An investment of more than DKr42bn ($6bn) will be made in the project to enhance capacity throughout the entire global value chain, from the production of API to packaging. Most of the investment will be in expanding API capacity.
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The investment will support the production needs of both present and future offerings of the company in the serious chronic diseases segment, such as diabetes and obesity. The substantial investment coincides with Novo Nordisk’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of its founding in Denmark.
Construction on the expansion projects is scheduled for gradual completion, commencing at the end of 2025 and extending until 2029.
Upon conclusion of the construction, the project is expected to generate 800 new jobs within the facilities, including 700 jobs in the new API facility and 100 jobs in the new packaging facility. 3,000 external workers will also be employed during the construction phase.
Novo Nordisk’s API manufacturing facility details
Novo Nordisk’s new facility will manufacture API for products, including GLP-1 products.
It will be a cost-effective, multi-product establishment built on a 170,000m² (1.82 million ft²) area. It will comprise the development of an API recovery factory, an API purification factory and a finished products assembly pack.
The facility will feature state-of-the-art technology and a modern working environment and will be designed to be flexible to accommodate future processes. It will consume around 40% less water and 50% less energy than similar API processes in other facilities.
It will focus on efficient and environmentally sustainable delivery of high-quality products to patients globally.
Novo Nordisk’s existing facility in Kalundborg
Novo Nordisk established the production facilities in Kalundborg in 1969. The Kalundborg site is the world’s largest insulin manufacturing plant and the largest plant of the company.
The site currently manufactures all the diabetes API as well as some biopharmaceutical products and lines with formulation and filling.
The facilities cover an area of 1.6 million m² and employ 4,400 people. Several biopharmaceutical products, as well as products for obesity and diabetes treatment, are manufactured in the facilities.
In the plant, cells of yeast strains such as saccharomyces cerevisiae are used to produce diabetes care products.
Novo Nordisk had committed more than DKr18bn ($2.4bn) to the development of production facilities in Kalundborg, from 2000 until 2020.
Subsequently, in 2021 and 2022, Novo Nordisk disclosed plans for an additional investment of DKr18bn for the construction of four new production facilities and the reconstruction of three existing ones. The production sites currently employ 23,000 people.
The company anticipates approval for a new production site at Funen in Denmark.
Novo Nordisk’s other facilities in Denmark
Novo Nordisk’s Danish headquarters in Bagsværd was inaugurated in 2014. The company also has its NovoSeven® pharmaceutical facility in Hillerod, Denmark, which develops and manufactures new biopharmaceuticals based on proteins cultured in mammalian cells.
It also opened a global raw material warehouse in 2018 in Hillerod.
