COPENHAGEN, June 12 Reuters Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk will invest 15.9 billion Danish crowns 2.29 billion to expand a production facility in Denmark for products to treat serious chronic diseases, the company said in a statement on Monday.

The existing facility produces active pharmaceutical ingredient API, the main biologically active components of medicines, and will be expanded to produce material for both current and future products.

The expansion is not for the production of semaglutide, the key ingredient in Novo39;s highly popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which treat diabetes and weightloss respectively, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Novo has faced major supply constraints of semaglutide after it was overwhelmed by massive demand for Wegovy during its launch in the United States in 2021, and has invested heavily to increase the supply.

Last month, the firm said it would ration the supply of starter doses for Wegovy in the U.S. to cope with demand.

Construction of the new facility is underway and it is expected to start producing API by early 2029.

This important investment will ensure the continuous development of our latephase pipeline into deliveries of important medicines for treatments to patients worldwide, Novo39;s head of product supply, quality and IT, Henrik Wulff, said in a statement.

Novo, which produces API at two facilities in Denmark and one in Clayton, North Carolina, in the United States, said last year it planned to invest 5.4 billion…