Novo’s $4.1 billion expansion will create 1,000 jobs

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk will spend $4.1 billion and create 1,000 job to expand its operations in Johnston County.

A new plant on Powhatan Road, the company’s third in Johnston, will grow the Novo’s capacity to produce injectable treatments for people with obesity and other chronic diseases. As the company’s diabetes drugs have proven effective at weight loss, demand for them has soared.

“The magnitude of today’s announcement … is nothing short of monumental,” Chris Johnson, head of the Johnston County Economic Development Office, said on Monday.

Johnson gave much of the credit to County Commissioners. “Because of your leadership today and over the past 20 years, Johnston County will again be part of the single largest life science manufacturing investment in the state of North Carolina,” he said.

County Commissioners met on Monday to award incentives for the project — essentially grants equal to a portion of the property taxes Novo will pay on the plant. The county will do so for 12 years, much longer than the typical seven for industrial projects in Johnston.

The county will also place a building inspector on site during construction to speed the inspection process.

Shaylah Nunn Jones, Novo’s director of public affairs and communications, said commissioners had played a vital role in an expansion that had been in the works for nearly two years. “Back in 2022, we had an opportunity to compete with locations all over the world for a major expansion that we hoped would be located here in North Carolina,”  she told commissioners. “Your board showed up, and it was for that reason that we sent a strong message to Denmark that Johnston County was open to business, that the United States and North Carolina and Johnston County were willing and able to support Novo Nordisk’s growth and expansion.”

Johnson said incentives from the county would prove a money-saver for taxpayers. “Even after today’s economic development incentive grant … has been issued to the company, this record-breaking investment will assist the board’s continued trajectory of reducing tax liability for every citizen in Johnston County,” he said.

Just as important, the plant will “provide a multitude of career opportunities” for Johnstonians, Johnson said.

In a news release, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina spelled out details of the project.

The plant will boast 1.4 million square feet of production space, doubling the square feet of the company’s three existing plants in North Carolina, two of them in Johnston County.

The project will also grow the company’s workforce in the region from roughly 2,500 to about 3,500.

“This announcement is the largest life sciences investment in the state’s history,” said Christopher Jung, chief executive of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. “We are proud that Novo Nordisk has confidence in the workforce, resources and partnerships North Carolina provides.”

Early land clearing and foundation are underway to prepare the 56-acre footprint. Some 2,000 contractors will work on the construction.

The company expects the plant to come online gradually between 2027 and 2029.

The average wage for the 1,000 jobs will be $70,000. The average in Johnston County is $50,605.

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