Novo Nordisk expands Irish facility with $500M investment to manufacture oral GLP-1s

Following the recent FDA approval of its Wegovy pill, Denmark-headquartered Novo Nordisk is expanding its manufacturing facility in Athlone, Ireland with a €432 million investment — more than $500 million — to boost the drugmaker’s capacity to manufacture oral glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist therapies outside the United States. 

The expansion of the tableting facility will provide “significant” additional manufacturing capacity for current and future GLP-1 treatments, while allowing Ireland to serve as a “critical hub” for markets outside the U.S., according to Novo Nordisk’s announcement.

News about the upgrade and retrofit of the Irish plant follows the FDA’s December 2025 approval of the drugmaker’s Wegovy pill in the U.S., the first oral GLP-1 approved for weight management. Novo Nordisk launched the pill in the U.S. in early January 2026 and submitted oral semaglutide 25-mg, once-daily for obesity to the European Medicines Agency and other regulatory authorities during the second half of 2025.

“With the investment in the Athlone facility, Novo Nordisk is expanding its production capacities for oral products, which will strengthen our ability to meet both current and future demand, outside the U.S.,” Kasper Bødker Mejlvang, executive vice president for CMC and product supply, said in a statement.

Construction at the 45-acre site in Athlone, which currently has 260 employees, has already started and will be finalized gradually from the end of 2027 through 2028. Novo Nordisk said the project will create up to 500 construction jobs.

In 2024, the Danish drugmaker acquired the former Elan Drug Technologies plant from Dublin, Ireland-headquartered biopharma company Alkermes, which received a one-time cash payment for the facility and certain related assets of approximately $91 million.

Alkermes and Novo Nordisk agreed to a subcontracting arrangement to continue certain development and manufacturing activities performed at the Athlone facility following the closing of the transaction, with activities continuing through the end of 2025.

Cash flow, CAPEX, former Catalent sites 

In its 2025 annual report filed last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Novo Nordisk said free cash flow last year was Danish Krone (DKK) 28.3 billion compared to DKK 14.7 billion in 2024. The company attributed the increase in free cash flow to the $11.7 billion acquisition of the three former Catalent manufacturing sites in 2024, partially countered by increased capital expenditures.

“Capital expenditure for property, plant and equipment was DKK 60.1 billion compared with DKK 47.2 billion in 2024, primarily reflecting investments in additional capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production and fill-finish capacity for both current and future injectable and oral products,” Novo Nordisk said its SEC filing.

Located in Anagni, Italy, Brussels, Belgium, and Bloomington, Indiana, the three former Catalent sites are meant to boost the production of Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 medications Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for obesity.

The three former Catalent fill‑finish sites are currently being transitioned into Novo Nordisk’s global manufacturing network, according to the company. The drugmaker said that once these facilities are fully integrated, they will “enhance flexibility and optionality across the supply chain and complement our significant internal expansions.”

However, in late 2025, the FDA issued a warning letter to Novo Nordisk regarding a former Catalent site in Bloomington, which continues to be hit with regulatory actions. Among the cGMP violations, the agency’s warning letter called out Novo Nordisk’s inadequate investigations into drug product failures and discrepancies.

Capital expenditures in 2026, beyond

This year, capital expenditures are expected to be around DKK 55 billion — compared to DKK 60 billion in 2025 — reflecting the expansion of the global supply chain, according to Novo Nordisk, which said the investments will create additional capacity including API manufacturing, aseptic and finished production, as well as packaging capacity.

At the same time, the drug maker warned in its SEC filing that “expanding production capacity is complex and associated with long lead times.”

In the U.S., Novo Nordisk’s goal is to operate its production facilities “around the clock” and accelerate capital expenditures. The drugmaker invested approximately $2 billion in U.S. manufacturing in 2025 and plans to make a $5.6 billion investment towards 2028.

Novo Nordisk is investing $4.1 billion to expand its U.S. capacity by building a second fill and finishing manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, to produce current and future injectable treatments for obesity and other chronic diseases.

“These investments will add new lines, increase fill‑finish and packaging capacity, and significantly expand multiple U.S. sites to address national supply needs,” Novo Nordisk said. “This complements ongoing work to scale production across our global manufacturing network, with major expansions underway in Denmark, France, Brazil and China.”

Novo Nordisk is investing more than $1 billion to expand its manufacturing site in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The project includes the addition of aseptic production lines, a warehouse, and a new quality control lab. The site will handle multiple product formats, including GLP-1s. Construction has begun, with operations expected to start in 2028.

However, in its SEC filing, the drugmaker said that “in the coming years” its capital expenditure investments are expected to decline overall. Novo Nordisk also warned that “demand fluctuations, resource shortages, geopolitical instability, trade disputes and local manufacturing requirements strain global supply chains.”