Novo Nordisk making good on CAPEX pledge with $100m Danish spend

Novo Nordisk’s Kalundborg, Denmark site produces half the world’s insulin, the firm claims, as it looks to upgrade and expand its facilities.

In Novo Nordisk’s end of year report, the firm announced its intentions to invest DKK 9 billion ($1.4 billion) in capital expenditure to reinforce its property, plants and equipment in 2019.

This week, the Danish drugmaker made good on DKK 650 million worth of its pledge by announcing plans to upgrade and expand its insulin production site in Kalundborg, Denmark.

Image: iStock/naruedom

The project, expected to be completed next year, will see certain facilities rebuilt to allow the site to meet future production needs of next generation diabetes products.

“The investments in production facilities highlight Novo Nordisk’s ambition to continue strengthening its presence in Denmark and Kalundborg,” Michael Hallgren, SVP for Novo Nordisk, said. “Today, Novo Nordisk manufactures around half of the world’s insulin in Kalundborg and we have had a presence in Kalundborg for 50 years.”

He added this is the latest expansion at the site, which since the beginning of the century has received over DKK 15 billion ($2.3 billion) worth of investment.

In 2018, Novo Nordisk spent DKK 9.5 billion ($1.5 billion) in capital expenditure. Much of this was on building out its 833,000 square-foot facility in Clayton, North Carolina commissioned in 2015 at a cost of $2 billion. When operational in 2020, the expanded site will produce the drug substance for a range of Novo Nordisk’s current and future GLP-1 and insulin medicines.

The firm also pumped $87 million into a North Carolina diabetes drug fill and finish plant to support the drug substance plant last year.