CEO Mike Doustdar told Bloomberg its Athlone site will make the drug for non-US markets.
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk is reportedly set to expand its Irish production facility in Co Roscommon, according to Bloomberg.
New investment in its Athlone site will see it manufacturing weight loss drug Wegovy for markets outside the US, CEO Mike Doustdar told the publication.
While previously available in the form of an injection, Wegovy was launched in pill form at the start of this year. Yesterday (11 February), Novo Nordisk said it plans to begin offering Wegovy in vials, rather than injection pens.
Doustdar said that more than 240,000 Americans are already taking the drug since it was launched in pill form in January, but did not reveal the scale or timing of investment planned for Athlone.
The pharma company, known for developing anti-diabetic medication Ozempic – which is popularly used for weight loss – is facing strong competition in the weight loss space from rivals such as Eli Lilly, which also has Irish production facilities geared towards this market.
“If we were about to throw in the towel we would not be investing in factories in Ireland,” Doustdar told the publication.
Novo Nordisk purchased its Monksland, Athlone facility for $92.5m in December 2023. Last autumn, Novo implemented job cuts, both voluntary and mandatory, at the facility as part of a global round of layoffs.
A company spokesperson told SiliconRepublic.com at the time that Novo was “announcing a company-wide transformation to simplify our organisation, improve decision-making speed and reallocate resources towards the company’s growth opportunities in diabetes and obesity”.
In 2024, the company purchased council lands worth €1.55m to further expand its Monksland site.
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