Why isn't the £6bn town of Wegovy in Denmark booming?

Kalundborg, a town of just 16,000 people on the Danish coast about an hour's drive from Copenhagen, is as close to a modern gold rush town as you can get.

It is the main production center for the weight loss drug Wegovy. Semaglutide, used in Wegovy and the diabetes drug Ozempic are manufactured in a factory hereand parent company Novo Nordisk has invested more than $8.5 billion (£6.5 billion) in the city. That's almost the entire GDP of Monaco.

However, convincing people to actually live in the city could prove difficult.

There is one Influx of workers and construction workers into the factory in the morning and an exodus in the afternoon – locals call it the “Novo queue” and recommend avoiding the city street for these hours each day.

Hardly any of the workers stay; they live outside and drive in.

So with £400,000 invested per resident, what's not to like?

Behind the rosy numbers, Kalundborg faces many challenges, from run-down schools and low incomes to many overweight children.

State school grades in Danish language and mathematics here are below the national average. Some on the outskirts of town have few facilities, neither indoors nor outdoors, with only old swings in the playground.

“Once you've seen that, you take one of the big cities here and say, 'Well, we'll live there and then I can go to Kalundborg to work,'” regional councilor Helle Laursen Petersen tells me.

She says these schools struggle to attract experienced teachers, which contributes to many parents having low expectations.

After all, she says, they believe their children will always get a job at the Novo Nordisk factory, so why should they try to go to university?

Ali, Anna K, Anna and Marie from the Gymnasium, the most academic secondary school in the area, tell me that they want to go to study.

“It could be interesting later, but at the moment I find it a bit too boring to settle here – I think I would like a bigger city,” says Anna K.

But Ali and Marie are more excited about returning after their studies, hoping to find more job opportunities in the city so they can better enjoy the natural beauty.

Meanwhile, Brian Sonder Anderson, operator of the Blue Angel cinema and president of the local retailers' association, points out that local supermarkets and bakeries are booming as factory workers flock to them on their lunch breaks.

But other stores, such as those that sell shoes and clothing, open quickly and then close because many workers live elsewhere.

There are many low-income families living here, displaced from the capital, Copenhagen, where rents and property prices have skyrocketed – some rely on benefits, others rely on factory work.

Kalundborg also has a health problem – it is among the 5% of Danish cities with the highest proportion of overweight children.

Novo Nordisk, on the other hand, does now Europe's most valuable company with sales of more than $33 billion last year, bringing its market value to over $500 billion.

The investments in the city aim to create 1,250 jobs to the existing 4,500 employees at the Kalundborg plant and boost production of top-selling medicines. While the company represents around 1% of the Danish workforce, it is responsible for a larger share of its growth.

Denmark's economic growth was 1.1% in the first nine months of 2023. However, excluding the pharmaceutical sector, which is dominated by Novo, the economy contracted by 0.8%. Some analysts have warned that parts of the country's economy risk becoming too dependent on the pharmaceutical industry.

The city's mayor, Martin Damm, is optimistic and emphasizes that more than 1,000 new jobs are created here every year and that some young people enjoy being at home here.

“In Europe, people move from the countryside to the big cities and it’s the other way around,” he says.

“This is the small town [that] attracts large investments.”

He also insists that schools are being renovated or already have good facilities – and that increasing wealth will lead to healthier lifestyles over time.

Miguel, an 18-year-old student from Madrid studying biotechnology at one of the city's new university programs, has just joined a local soccer team with players from Brazil, Mexico, Poland and Ukraine.

“There are so many international people in this city and almost everyone I spoke to in English responded in English,” he says.

Amanda from Brazil insists there is opportunity here – she has found a job, taken her two young children to a local school and hopes they will stay and study here.

A new highway is also being built to ease the city's chronic congestion – but the real solution to this will be moving people here.

The high school students think the city is at a crossroads of sorts.

“In five years I think the city [will have] “It has grown quite a bit – I hope for a multicultural city,” says Anna K.

“If that’s the case, then maybe I’ll think about going back.”