Novo Nordisk, the developer of the "slimming elixir," will invest 2.1 billion euros (approximately 2.3 billion US dollars) in France to expand its production capacity in the country.
On Thursday (November 23rd local time), the office of French President Marco Polo announced in a statement that Marco Polo will officially announce the investment at his factory in Chartres, France, later in the day. The office stated that this investment will bring over 500 job positions, but did not disclose whether it includes public subsidies.
Extremely scarce Smegglutide
At present, Novo Nordisk is trying to expand the production of diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss drug Wegovy. The active drug ingredient (API) of both drugs is semaglutide, which is a long-acting glucagon like peptide-11, also known as GLP-1 analog, which can help regulate blood sugar level and reduce appetite.
Last year, thanks to the celebrity effect, including Elon Musk, Wegovy was in short supply in the European and American markets, which even led to the global shortage of Nuohetai, a substitute for Wegovy, and took away the "life-saving drug" for diabetics. In this regard, European and American governments have successively restricted the use of GLP-1 drug to reserve it for patients with diabetes.
It is worth mentioning that currently Novo Nordisk only produces smectide raw materials at its headquarters in Denmark and the United States. The French Chartres factory, which announced its capital injection today, may join this group in the future.
It is understood that French factories previously mainly produced insulin. As the traditional top three of global insulin, Novo Nordisk has 1450 employees in this factory and produces insulin for over 8 million patients worldwide.
Two weeks ago, Novo Nordisk announced plans to invest over 42 billion Danish kroner (approximately $6 billion) starting this year to expand its factory in Karenburg, Denmark. It is estimated that with the intensification of competition, the size of the weight loss drug market will reach 100 billion US dollars by 2030. Benefiting from this positive trend, Novo Nordisk became the most valuable company in Europe within the year, making it a behemoth with a formidable wealth.
Reindustrialization in France
For France, Novo Nordisk's decision to build a factory will help promote its "re industrialization". Markron has repeatedly stated that in the face of increasingly fierce global competition, France must accelerate the process of reindustrialization based on green innovation. "Our mission is not to become consumers of American industry. This is about sovereignty
Markron has repeatedly emphasized that the industrial subsidy policy in the US Inflation Reduction Act has a "super offensive" effect on European companies, and is solving US problems in a way that harms European interests. To accelerate the promotion of reindustrialization, the French government will adopt a series of measures such as establishing green industry tax credits, accelerating industrial project licensing approval, and encouraging the procurement of locally manufactured products in Europe.
For Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled last week that the 60 billion euros of redundant funds to deal with the COVID-19 crisis should not be transferred to the "Climate and Transformation Fund", which means that the future budget of the German government has a huge hole of 60 billion euros. According to media analysis, Germany's ruling may enhance France's attractiveness as an investment destination.