Novo Nord invested $1.3 billion to expand the production of API and develop new oral drugs

In the fourth quarter of 2019, Novo Norfoe launched the world's first and only oral glutatrogin-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) permeable agonist, Rybelsus (Semaglutide, Smeglutide), a drug for type 2 diabetes with heavy sales potential.
but the company is also seeing potential new uses for its oral drug-taking platform and is strengthening its manufacturing network to support its push in that direction.
Wednesday, No. 1 said it expects to invest about DKK 8 billion ($1.3 billion) in capital projects in 2021 to increase production capacity for active drug ingredients (APIs).
company's chief financial officer, Karsten Munk Knudsen, said on a conference call with analysts that the spending would help advance its oral dosing efforts.
Knudsen said on a conference call that the sharp increase in capital spending from a historical figure of about DKK 6 billion ($1 billion) was based on "positive pipeline progress" and noted that the company was preparing to conduct high-dose oral semaglutide trials. Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen,
's retiring chief scientific officer, said on a conference call that the trial was a "high priority" because the company wanted to "stand out in the market with highly efficient oral biologics, regardless of their dosage, than our intended competitors."
" In addition to the high-dose oral semaglutide trial for diabetes, the company plans to conduct a Phase 3 study on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In summary,
Thomsen said, "we are basically increasing capacity to meet the potential needs of some of these pipeline projects, but also to meet the potential pipeline projects on the same platform that have not yet been publicly disclosed."
" increase comes as No.
2016, the company threw out a plan to build a $2 billion API production site in Clayton, North Carolina, for oral semaglutide and other drugs.
the plant is expected to employ 700 people, an expansion of Noor and Nord's local plant.
on a conference call Wednesday, Knudsen said the North Carolina project is in its "final stages" and that most construction companies have left the site and will begin production in the first phase after submitting it to the FDA for review.
addition, Noel and Nord acquired a drug factory in Treyburn, North Carolina, in 2019 from embattled Purdue Pharma.
spokesman for Novo Norfoe said at the time that the company "wants to build tablet production capacity in the United States to build a local supply chain for oral semaglutide and future oral drugs."
," he added, adding that the plant was significant given its proximity to Clayton.
, of course, the company has received FDA approval for the oral version of Semaglutide, or Rybelsus, since Novo Nord announced these supply chain initiatives.
the drug comes at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sales of the oral GLP-1-1 perceptor agitant will grow to $300 million by 2020.
and Nord executives said on a conference call Wednesday that the company has so far negotiated about 90 percent market access for Rybelsus, and that about 80 percent of Rybelsus drug prescriptions are the first to be prescribed GLP-1 class drugs