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TOP ENGINEERING FIRM LOCATES IN US
Novo Nordisk is a company that focuses on production of blood-based pharmaceuticals. The Clayton facility produces insulin for diabetes control. NNE provides engineering support to both Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies worldwide. There are NNE subsidiaries in Denmark, China, France, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States, with projects all over the world. NNE-US in Clayton, like all NNE subsidiaries, does engineering work for life sciences industries, such as biological and pharmaceutical companies. It offers everything from basic design proposals to design of pharmaceutical processes and equipment, project management and testing/quality assurance when a project is completed. NNE-US in Clayton, which opened in October 2003, is the first NNE facility in the United States. In less than two years, it has grown from one employee to 50 employees and has become the best performing unit outside of Denmark. General Manager Bo Harvig said NNE-US plans to hire about 30 more employees by year end. Harvig said that NNE-US already has embarked on long-term projects in Virginia, Pennsylvania and California and has future plans to create satellite offices in or near those areas. 'We are growing much faster than expected,' Harvig said. 'Last year, we doubled or tripled our goals. This year, we will reach all our goals by April (four months).' Harvig said it has proposals pending in every major pharmaceutical company in the Triangle area. He said the key to the company's success is its pharmaceutical experience. 'Our competition grew out of construction companies, whereas we grew out of a pharmaceutical company,' he said. 'Due to our long – 80 years – history with Novo Nordisk, we know the industry from the inside. We can design from the process part of things. We can take a process view.' Harvig is a master's level engineer with 15 years of experience – 11 of them with NNE. Before coming to Clayton to open NNE-US, he was project manager with NNE for the design and construction of the world's largest insulin production plant in Denmark, which won an international Haden Freeman Award for Engineering Excellence. Harvig said Clayton is a perfect location for a U.S. headquarters. 'Within an hour's drive you'll reach most major pharmaceutical companies,' Harvig said. It also is near Novo Nordisk's pharmaceutical company in Clayton. About half of the 50-person staff at NNE-US is working on the current Novo Nordisk expansion in Clayton. Novo Nordisk General Manager John Pratt said, 'This has expedited our expansion very quickly. Historically, we were part of the same corporation, but being so disconnected geographically from the parent company did not allow us to take full advantage of that organization. 'Now that NNE is in the U.S., we are seeing what all the sites around the world had all along. They are engineers who know the company and its standards and can give us what we need.' Pratt said that NNE-US also provides Novo Nordisk some cost breaks on the construction. Pratt said, 'They are well beyond what Bo told the Board of Directors he'd accomplish two or three years ago.' Harvig replied,' We couldn't have done it without the support here. I can concentrate at what I'm good at, engineering. On the first day, we plugged in a computer, and we were going.' Recently, NNE in Denmark won an award for the NovoSeven Manufacturing facility which makes a drug to treat hemophilia. The almost 151,000-square foot, $143-million facility was completed in 18 months from design to opening, breaking a world record for creation of such a facility. It did so by using a special modular approach in which the inner workings (equipment) of the factory were being created and tested while the building itself was being constructed. Though the project was completed before the opening of NNE-US in Clayton, three people who currently work for NNE-US were involved in the project.
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