Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk plans major expansion in the Triangle

Novo Nordisk , the Danish pharmaceutical company behind the weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, will build a new manufacturing facility in Johnston County, it announced Monday.

Why it matters: The Triangle's prominent role in the company's recent Ozempic-related boom will continue to grow. Novo Nordisk is already one of the region's largest life sciences employers, with nearly 2,500 workers across facilities in Durham and Clayton .

Driving the news: The company said Monday it plans to invest $4.1 billion and hire 1,000 more workers in Clayton, calling it the largest single life science investment in state history.

• The new facility — one of the largest manufacturing investments in the company's history — will be the size of about 25 football fields and will produce and package medications that treat obesity and other chronic illnesses.
• Workers will make an average of about $70,000 annually, and the facility should open in 2027. Already, construction has begun on the project, with steel beams rising on a former farm south of downtown Clayton.

Zoom in: Novo Nordisk has been spending heavily on its facilities to keep up the production of semaglutide, the pivotal ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy. Other than a site in Denmark, North Carolina is the only other location where it makes the ingredient, Bloomberg reported .

• In recent months, the company has acquired around 175 acres near its existing plant in Clayton and received more than a dozen building permits for the property, the Triangle Business Journal reported .
• The Johnston County Board of Commissioners amended an incentive agreement with Novo Nordisk on Monday morning, which would give the company grants worth a portion of its property taxes if this company meets investment goals over the next 12 years, according to Chris Johnson, director of the Johnston County Economic Development Office.

What they're saying: Niels Nielsen, the Novo Nordisk executive in charge of its North Carolina operations, declined to say what specific products will be made at the new facility, but noted it would provide flexibility to react to consumer demands.

• "Last year, we reached 41 million patients around the world. We want to reach more with our life changing medications," he told Axios.
• The investment also aims to support "future projects still in our [research and development] pipeline," per Nielsen.

The big picture: Novo Nordisk is among a wave of biotech companies opening or expanding facilities in the Triangle area in recent years, with many companies citing the state's universities and collaborations with community colleges for building here.

• Around 40,000 people in the Triangle worked in the life sciences industry as of 2022, a significant increase over the past decade, according to research from CBRE.
• From 2016 to 2023, lab and R&D space grew from 4.4 million square feet to 9.3 million square feet.
• Tuesday's announcement from Novo Nordisk also comes as Fujifilm Diosynth is planning a $2.7 billion investment in a Holly Springs biomanufacturing facility that will create an estimated 1,300 jobs.
• That facility is expected to be fully operational by next year.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis , who attended the Novo Nordisk announcement, said the expansion of the state's biotech industry was also being driven by the state's decision to lower corporate tax rates, which have gone from 6% to 2.5% over the past decade.

• "If Novo Nordisk was considering foreign direct investment in the United States in 2010 I'm convinced that there's no way North Carolina would have been on the short list," said Tillis, who lowered the tax rate while serving as speaker of the N.C. House.