UPDATE 1-Novo confirms Catalent Indiana plant has started filling Wegovy pens

(Adds detail about Catalent plant in paragraphs 2-4)

LONDON/COPENHAGEN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Catalent's Indiana plant in the United States has started filling injection pens for Novo Nordisk's obesity drug Wegovy, the Danish drugmaker's CEO told Reuters on Wednesday, helping to boost output of the popular weekly injection.

The comment by Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen is the first confirmation the site has started production.

Reuters

reported

last August that the plant in Bloomington, Indiana, was the third external site hired by Novo to do so-called "fill-finish" for Wegovy, as it scrambled to ramp up output due to soaring demand.

Novo Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen told Reuters in November that plans were on track for the third site to start operating by the end of 2023, but would not identify the site.

Novo has hired another contract manufacturer, Thermo Fisher , and has some in-house capacity for filling syringes and packaging its pens.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick in London and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; writing by Josephine Mason in London; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)