2023-11-23 18:55:27
France won the affair right under Ireland’s nose. The Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk announced Thursday, November 23 that it had chosen to invest in France, by doubling the surface area of its Chartres factory, opened in… 1961. Two additional buildings, two new production lines and a store additional logistics are planned, all for a total surface area of 230,000 m2 once the project is successfully completed. With the result, more than 500 new jobs will be created, which will be added to the 1,600 already existing on site.
This investment, formalized on Thursday November 23 in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron, the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, and his industry counterpart, Roland Lescure, should be finalized in 2028, for a total budget of 2.1 billion euros. A sum which is added to the announcements made in January by Novo Nordisk, concerning an investment of 130 million euros, still in Chartres.
Stock market highs
The Eure-et-Loir site, which today produces injector pens and insulin vials for 80 countries around the world, will thus increase this production but also extend its activity to treatments acting on the obesity, in high global demand. It will notably package Wegovy, its flagship drug in this area not yet marketed in France – where the certification application is planned for 2024.
“Novo Nordisk became the leading group in Europe by its market capitalization last September, precisely because of the massive success of its anti-obesity drug (known as “GLP-1”), one of the health ailments of modern times. , explains Thomas Crosier, partner at Kearney. The number of potential beneficiaries of these treatments is such that the other giant in this field, the American Eli Lilly, has also been taken to the highest stock market heights. »
A study by the Jefferies bank estimates that these “GLP-1” products will represent a market of 150 billion dollars (138 billion euros) worldwide by 2031, a market which would be captured 80% by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Which explains why these two companies are in full swing and are making an onslaught of announcements in recent months to increase their capacities. It is about facing the “production tensions that we are seeing, to meet growing demand”, notes Thomas Crosier.
New developments
Novo Nordisk has already warned that it will take several years to reach the level of global demand. The prospects are all the more attractive for producer groups as “molecules used in drugs against diabetes and obesity demonstrate several beneficial effects, such as reducing cardiovascular risks, adds Thomas Crosier. New developments can therefore be considered on the laboratory side, while health systems can expect savings. »
For the Élysée, “this announcement will also contribute to France’s “battle for foreign trade”, because 90 to 95% of production (from the Chartes site) is exported”. Virginie Lefebvre-Dutilleul, at Ernst & Young, believes that “this investment confirms that France has once again become attractive on the international scene, including in pharmaceuticals.”
“However, continues Virginie Lefebvre-Dutilleul, we also see the efforts that remain to be made, in particular to attract new projects, beyond expanding existing factories. » This specialist in the pharmaceutical sector also highlights the issue “to attract sites that specialize in gene therapies to our soil. In terms of pharmaceuticals, France is not one of the fastest countries to authorize the most innovative treatments, even if efforts have been made. »
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Denmark’s economic giant
Novo Nordisk’s announcement in France follows its announced investment of 5.6 billion euros at its Kalundborg site in Denmark. Driven by the success of its drugs against obesity and diabetes, the pharmaceutical laboratory has become the heavyweight of the Danish economy, his country of birth.
The group even saved the national economy at the start of 2023: Denmark achieved 1.7% growth in the first half of the year but the figure would have been negative without the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry (–0.3%). The stock market value of Novo Nordisk even exceeded Danish GDP.
For its part, the American pharmaceutical group Eli Lilly has just announced an investment of 2.3 billion euros in Germany to expand its production of diabetes drugs.
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