Danish firm to expand operations in Tianjin

By Ding Yining  |   2008-11-8  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

NOVO Nordisk has announced a major investment in a new insulin production and filling plant in Tianjin, China. Construction of the 50,850-square-meter facility will take up to two years and it will start operation in 2012.

The US$380-million investment in the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) will be one of the largest investments in the Danish drug maker's history as well as its biggest single investment outside Denmark. The new plant will become its major production base for the Asia-Pacific region and will serve both the domestic and international markets.

It will sit beside Novo Nordisk's first plant in Tianjin, which was completed in 1996 and expanded in 2002.

"The new plant in Tianjin will become the world's most modern insulin formulation and filling plant and is yet another example of the increasingly important role China is playing in Novo Nordisk's global operations," said Lars Rebien Sorensen, the company's president and chief executive officer.