Amid a major corporate overhaul, Novo Nordisk is pruning the ranks at its production facility in Bloomington, Indiana, which chips in on the blockbuster GLP-1 medications Ozempic and Wegovy.
All told, Novo plans to eliminate some 400 positions at the Bloomington site “at the beginning of May,” a company spokesperson told Fierce Tuesday. Once the downsizing is complete, roughly 1,400 workers will remain at the site, according to the spokesperson.
“We are deeply grateful to every impacted colleague and are committed to treating them with respect and dignity through this process,” the Novo spokesperson added in a statement. Novo did not specify the types of positions it will eliminate or elaborate on the precise timing the planned staff reduction.
“Despite this difficult decision, Novo Nordisk continues to invest in Site Bloomington as a critical part of our U.S. manufacturing network and our commitment to the people who depend on our medicines,” the spokesperson said.
Novo Nordisk acquired the site as part of a pair of transactions involving its parent company Novo Holdings and CDMO giant Catalent. When Novo Holdings inked its $16.5 billion buyout of Catalent back in 2024, it arranged for Novo Nordisk to purchase three of the CDMO’s sites, including Bloomington, for $11 billion.
Since then, Novo Nordisk has had to work through serious manufacturing issues at the site, leading to delays and disruptions for some of its clients. Notably, Regeneron weathered several delays for its Eylea franchise because of FDA inspection findings at the facility. Manufacturing shortfalls at the plant also led to regulatory setbacks for Scholar Rock and Incyte.
The FDA hit the plant with a warning letter late last year, scolding Novo for deviations linked to possible contamination of drug product from “mammalian hair,” as well as its investigation and response to the episodes.
Novo’s latest staffing adjustments come amid a period of flux for the Danish drugmaker, which notably its longtime CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen last year as the company’s position in the GLP-1 obesity race continued to weaken against chief rival Eli Lilly.
New Novo helmsman Mike Doustdar, who took over in August, a bid a month into his tenure to save around 8 billion Danish kroner annually by the end of this year, which the company plans to accomplish in part by laying off some 9,000 staffers across an overall workforce that exceeded 78,000 as of last September.
Many of those cuts have been telegraphed for Novo’s home country of Denmark, and the drugmaker noted last year that it would continue to look for “additional initiatives” to boost its focus, cost efficiencies and “performance culture.”
Novo has entered 2026 on a slightly more positive note thanks to the early launch of its Wegovy pill for obesity, plus a more recent for a high-dose version of injectable Wegovy, although the company noted in February that it overall sales to slide between 5% and 13% in 2026.
