STOCKHOLM (Reuters) — Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NVO, NOVO-B.CO) will invest 8.5 billion crowns ($1.20 billion) in a new facility in Odense, Denmark, for the production of rare disease drugs, it said on Monday.

Novo Nordisk, which has become Europe's most valuable listed company on the back of its hugely popular weight-loss drug Wegovy, bought the 200-acre site in July, saying it may build a new plant there, without indicating for what type of drugs.

Shares in the company were up around 2% in early trade, taking a year-to-date rise to 10%.

The company said on Monday that the site will include a warehouse as well as a factory.

"Designed to be modular and flexible, it will accommodate multiple product types within rare disease, such as haemophilia," it said in a statement.

The facility will be Novo Nordisk's first in Odense, and its first new factory in Denmark this century, it said.

Construction work has started and is scheduled to be completed in 2027, when the facility is expected to create 400 permanent jobs. During construction, up to 1,000 external employees will be working on-site, the company said.

Novo Nordisk has announced billions of dollars worth of investments this year, including $4.1 billion to build a U.S. facility to fill injection pens for Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic.

Shares in the company were up 2% in early trade, taking a year-to-date rise to 10%.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; additional reporting by Maggie Frick, Editing by Edmund Klamann, Kirsten Donovan)