The Danish firm said it will “acquire additional operational equipment” at the Diabetes Finished Product (DFP) facility in Clayton to respond to growing demand for drug products.
The existing facility – located on a 264-acre campus in Johnston County – offers enough open space to house the additional equipment, spokesperson Erin O’Brien told us.
The site is responsible for making, filling and packaging diabetes and obesity products such as liraglutide, as well as assembling prefilled insulin devices for the US market.
Novo Nordisk predicts the project will be completed in Q4, 2019, and the site fully operational in 2020.
The expansion “is likely to create at least two dozen additional positions” from 2020 onwards, we were told.
“These positions include operators and technicians, as well as professional engineers and quality personnel,” said O’Brien.
The firm continues to assess plans for future expansions at the Clayton site.
We have “not reached a final decision at this time on whether we will move forward with any further initiatives,” O’Brien told us.
Novo Nordisk has expanded its Clayton campus several times since it launched in 1993.
In 2015, the drugmaker announced plans to spend $2bn constructing diabetes active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and production plants in Clayton, US and Måløv, Denmark.