Novo expanding massive Denmark plant

Just weeks after kicking off construction of a nearly $2 billion API plant in the U.S., Novo Nordisk ($NVO) will also expand a facility in Denmark that it says is the world’s largest insulin plant.

The Danish drugmaker will spend $59.70 million (400 million Danish kroner) on a 500 meter (5,381 foot) expansion of the facility in Kalundborg. The expansion is set to be complete in 2018.

Novo said the 1.1-million-square-meter (11.8-million-square-foot) plant currently has 3,400 employees and produces 50% of the world's insulin.

“The new facilities will give us greater flexibility and enable the installation of equipment that will enhance efficiency and increase the long-term production capacity of the plant," Michael Hallgren, senior VP and head of production in Kalundborg, said in a statement.

At the end of March, Novo kicked off construction of its first U.S. insulin API plant, an $1.8 billion project in Clayton, NC. That facility will have a footprint of 417,639 square feet, which it said equates to about 7 football fields. It is slated to have 700 employees when complete in 2020.

by Eric Palmer | Jul 5, 2016

Source: http://www.fiercepharma.com/