Ozempic producer buys factory in Brussels
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, maker of the popular drug Ozempic, is buying a Brussels factory that fills medical injection pens. The factory is now owned by US company Catalent.
The transaction, announced on Monday, is part of a deal in which investment company Novo Holdings (also Novo Nordisk's majority shareholder) will acquire Catalent. When the deal is completed - expected by the end of 2024 - Novo Nordisk will buy a total of three plants. It will pay 11 billion euros to Catalent's new owner, Novo Holdings.
In addition to the Brussels plant, Novo Nordisk will also acquire similar facilities in Italy (Anagni) and the US (Bloomington). Brussels already fills injection pens for Novo Nordisk.
Thanks to the three plants, which together employ more than 3,000 people, "we will be able to help significantly more people with diabetes and obesity in the future," said Novo Nordisk chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen in a press release.
Shortages
The sister drugs Ozempic and Wegovy are marketed in injection pens with different doses for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and as weight loss drugs respectively. Both have become very popular as weight-loss drugs worldwide in recent months, leading to shortages for diabetics. In Belgium, the national medicines agency FAGG has asked doctors to prescribe Ozempic only to diabetics and severely obese people for the time being.
As a result of the Ozempic hype, Novo Nordisk became Europe's most valuable listed company.
© PHOTO SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
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