Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has built a mighty operation in North Carolina since opening its first plant in Johnston County in 1993, highlighted by plans for a $4.1 billion, 1.4 million-square-foot facility expected to be completed in 2027. More than 2,500 people work for the company in the state, along with pledges for an additional 1,000 jobs.
In recent years, much of the growth has been tied to its Wegovy and Ozempic drugs for weight loss and diabetes treatment. Shares of Novo Nordisk gained nearly sevenfold in the decade before its peak at about $140 in mid-2024.
But increasing competition and modest clinical trial results on new drugs have forced retrenchment at the company. This year, Novo changed CEOs and is cutting 9,000 of
its 78,400 positions, including 5,000 in Denmark, while recording a $1.3 billion restructuring loss.
Shares were trading around $54 in mid-September, with the company’s market value about $187 billion. lt once topped $600 billion, making it Europe’s most valuable public company at one time.
“Novo is instilling an increased performance-based culture, deploying our resources ever more effectively, and prioritizing investment where it will have the most impact — behind our leading therapy areas,” says CEO Mike Doustdar, who took over in August.
In late August, a company spokeswoman said “U.S. manufacturing sites remain top priority” despite a hiring pause. “Our core business is built on diabetes and obesity — and our North Carolina facilities in Durham and Clayton are essential to producing those treatments, including our $4.1 billion expansion project in Johnston County,” she says.
The drugmaker says the cuts will help it simplify its organization, “improve the speed of decision-making and reallocate resources toward the company’s growth opportunities in diabetes and obesity.”
While Novo presses ahead, Natron Energy’s plans for a $1.4 billion factory to make sodium-ion batteries in Edgecombe County have ended. The company had pledged to create 1,062 jobs at the site, the second-biggest total of any N.C. corporate expansion in the past 18 months. (JetZero in Greensboro tops the list.)
But it abruptly shut down in early September amid plummeting interest in startup battery companies. Its largest investor, Santa Clara, California-based Sherwood Partners, is selling its assets. Natron was pioneering an alternative to lithium-ion batteries used to power many electric vehicles.
North Carolina promised Natron $21.7 million in performance-based incentives to build the factory near Rocky Mount, plus another $30 million for initial construction. No money changed hands, however. ■
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