On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron will inaugurate a 2.1 billion euro ($2.3 billion) investment by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), pitching the move as a sign of newly restored French industrial competitiveness. The investment, for which Macron’s office provided no detail, will be based in Chartres, west of Paris, where Novo already employs nearly 2,000 people. It relates to a Clayton buildup that the drugmaker has announced for 2020 and will also see it expand capacity at the site. The new facility will handle the tableting and packaging of the oral diabetes med Ozempic and other oral meds Novo develops.
The French leader is keen to boost the country’s manufacturing sector, struggling with low exports and high unemployment. This year, he laid out a EUR30 billion innovation investment plan to lure foreign investors into creating high-tech champions and reversing years of industrial decline in the euro area’s second-largest economy.
The initiative will see the government give tax credits to companies investing in France and streamline factory opening procedures. It comes after Macron’s predecessor, Francois Hollande, vowed to reduce red tape and make it easier to do business in France.
Novo, founded in 1878 and now employs some 51,000 people globally, is best known for its hugely popular anti-obesity drug Wegovy. The appetite suppressant, whose active ingredient is semaglutide, has been shown to help patients shed a lot of weight while also helping them maintain their health and even slow the progression of type 2 diabetes. The craze for the drug, backed by celebrities and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, has helped Novo become Europe’s most valuable firm, sending its shares up more than a third this year.
In addition to the pharma project, the French leader will announce an investment of up to EUR1 billion by 2030 in small nuclear fission reactors that are safer and more cost-efficient than larger power stations and produce less radioactive waste. It is part of an EU drive to reduce carbon emissions, as the bloc cannot rely on renewables alone to meet its energy needs.
A Macron aide has yet to respond to a request to clarify whether the EUR2.1 billion investment includes public subsidies. A separate aide told Reuters that the Clayton expansion would comprise internal and external funding.
