Fire at key Novo Nordisk construction site extinguished

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Novo Nordisk said on Thursday a fire had been extinguished at a construction site in Kalundborg, Denmark, where the company is investing heavily to boost the production capacity of its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy and Ozempic for diabetes.

Thick black smoke was seen rising from the area in Kalundborg, a key manufacturing hub for Novo Nordisk, in videos and pictures published by Danish TV2 news and other media.

Shares in Novo Nordisk fell 3.4% immediately after the news and were trading down 0.6% at 1312 GMT.

“We can confirm that a fire broke out today in the roof of a building under construction at a construction site at Novo Nordisk in Kalundborg,” Novo said in an emailed statement, adding that no one was injured in the fire.

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said it was not immediately clear if the fire would delay construction plans at the site.

Danish police said the fire, which broke out near a ventilation shaft, had been extinguished but that smoke would continue from the site for the coming hours.

Novo is investing around $6 billion to expand the Kalundborg site to help boost capacity and meet soaring demand for Wegovy and Ozempic.

It was not immediately clear what the company was building at the site.

(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen, Terje Solsvik and Jacob Gronholt Pedersen; Editing by Anna Ringstrom and Mark Potter)