The company is ramping up its in-house manufacturing capacity to fill injection pens for its diabetes drug Ozempic and for the European version of its hugely popular weight-loss drug Wegovy, a senior executive told Reuters on Thursday.
Tag Archive for: supply chain
Novo depends upon a number of companies to help produce Wegovy, but it has released scant details on its supply chain for the weight-loss medicine and its diabetes drug Ozempic containing the same active ingredient.
For Novo Nordisk, Ozempic is the game changer that has propelled the company to new heights, but mastering the supplies of its semaglutide drugs, especially Wegovy, is the current challenge.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the updated vaccine last week for emergency use in individuals aged 12 years and older, but batches of the shots needed additional clearance from the FDA before they could be released.
The dual role of chemicals in both R&D and manufacturing means that chemical procurement is critical to keeping biopharma companies operating smoothly. A reliable and robust chemical supply chain is essential for both phases, as disruptions can have ripple effects that impact not just timelines and costs, but also the quality and safety of the end products.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a need for local production of vaccines. Now, German pharma company BioNTech has said it will start manufacturing vaccines in Africa.
The company supplied its COVID vaccines to the EU during the pandemic, but the contract for its Omicron-adjusted vaccines ended in August last year and was not renewed.
Ypsomed said it would expand its manufacturing capacities over the coming years, with Novo Nordisk contributing a significant part of the investment for the additional production infrastructure.
Novo Nordisk has hired U.S. private contract manufacturer PCI Pharma Services to handle assembly and packaging of Wegovy, a source familiar with the matter said, as it races to boost output of the weight-loss drug to meet demand.
The company stated that its flu vaccine had generated a stronger immune response against all four A and B strains of the virus compared to traditional flu shots in a late-stage trial. Moderna also announced it was scaling down manufacturing of its COVID-19 vaccine, an updated version of which was approved this week by U.S. regulators, to align with lower post-pandemic demand and help the company sooner hit its target of 75% to 80% gross margin growth.
