HQ Team
June 13, 2023: Denmark’s Novo Nordisk will invest 15.9 billion kroner ($2.30 billion) to expand its Hillerød production facility in the country to make new active pharmaceutical ingredients.
According to a company statement, the facility will focus on a future portfolio of serious chronic diseases.
Active ingredients are the substances in drugs that are responsible for the beneficial health effects.
The investment in Hillerød will create additional production capacity and increase Novo Nordisk’s ability to meet future market demands and be a key enabler for Novo Nordisk to develop its future clinical late-phase product portfolio, the company stated.
Late phase pipeline
“This important investment will ensure the continuous development of our late-phase pipeline into deliveries of important medicines for treatments to patients worldwide,” said Henrik Wulff, executive vice president of Product Supply, Quality & IT.
“The investment announced today confirms Hillerød and Denmark as cornerstones in our global footprint.”
The new facility will be designed as a multi-product facility, with the flexibility to accommodate new processes and display latest technology.
The facility will be efficient and environmentally sustainable by consuming less water and energy. It is expected to start production by early 2029.
Chronic diseases— such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes— are the leading causes of death and disability in the US. They are also leading drivers of the nation’s $4.1 trillion in annual healthcare, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Risk behaviors
Most chronic diseases are caused by key risk behaviors such as tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol abuse.
Noncommunicable diseases kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally. Each year, more than 15 million people die from a noncommunicable disease between the ages of 30 and 69 years.
Eighty-five of these “premature” deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to the WHO.
