The Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which is riding the global craze for its appetite suppressants, would like to expand in France. Next Thursday, Emmanuel Macron should announce a “significant” investment on his Chartres site (Eure-et-Loir), assures AFP. For now, the Élysée is content to indicate that the head of state will make “an important announcement, even very important in terms of attractiveness” during a trip on Thursday “to an industrial site”, thus suggesting new foreign investment. The Novo Nordisk site in Chartres specializes in the production of insulin cartridges and vials.
In January, the Danish laboratory had already announced an investment of 130 million euros on this site, which has around 1,450 employees: it intends to diversify production to therapeutic areas other than diabetes.
Novo Nordisk distinguished itself by launching new antidiabetic drugs called GLP-1, allowing record weight loss. Its appetite suppressant treatment Wegovy, derived from the antidiabetic drug Ozempic, has been a phenomenal success. The Dane shares the lead in the obesity market with the American Eli Lilly and its antidiabetic (Mounjaro). The group has just obtained the green light from the Federal Drugs Administration (FDA) to market its new treatment, Zepbound, in the United States.
The appetite suppressant market is considered the new Eldorado of the pharmaceutical industry. The demand is very high. But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the only two laboratories in the world offering these treatments, are currently struggling to respond. Hence the need for the laboratory to increase its production in its factories, including that of Chartres. For its part, Eli Lilly announced on Friday an investment of 2.3 billion euros in Germany to expand its production of diabetes drugs.