Novo Nordisk Expands Research Partnerships in China. By Børge Diderichsen, Vice-President, Novo Nordisk

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On August 6, 2009, Novo Nordisk and the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS) opened the SIBS-Novo Nordisk Translational Research Centre for Pre-Diabetes in Shanghai in the presence of distinguished Chinese and international guests from Shanghai, Beijing and Europe. ‘Translational research’ is a term used for efforts to bridge basic research and applied research. In practice, it means translating discoveries made in the lab to applications in the clinic or health care centres.

The aim of the Pre-Diabetes centre is to investigate new ways of predicting, preventing and treating the disease with the help of diagnostic tools, medicine and lifestyle changes. This new centre is part of the ‘Novo Nordisk Diabetes Research Partnership in China’ initiative announced in February 2009. Under the umbrella of this partnership, Novo Nordisk will invest 50 million CNY (approximately 6 million USD) over the next 5 years in various joint activities with Chinese scientists and doctors. This partnership investment is in addition to the 3 million USD that Novo Nordisk has donated since 2007 to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to support joint research projects and fellowships.

To be considered a serious and trustworthy partner in China, one needs to show that one is committed to long-term investment in manufacturing and research facilities in China. Thus, Chinese authorities welcome Novo Nordisk contributions in this area, such as the recent decision to expand the Novo Nordisk manufacturing facilities in Tianjin with an investment of 400 million USD. Novo Nordisk also has its own research facility in Beijing, which has been steadily expanding since its inauguration in 2002. It was the first R&D centre established in China by an international pharmaceutical company. In the field of research and innovation the Chinese authorities encourage joint competence building and training of Chinese scientists. The new joint Pre-Diabetes centre should be seen in that context as well.

To succeed on the market for diabetes treatment in China, one also needs to understand how diabetes develops in Chinese people, who are different genetically and metabolically from Caucasians. The new centre - jointly funded by SIBS and Novo Nordisk - will generate and get access to data on this subject. Thus, the team at the Pre-Diabetes Centre will try to identify molecular biomarker patterns in Chinese people, which are useful for predicting or preventing type 2 diabetes at its early stages. It will also search for new peptides or proteins that can prevent or treat diabetes. The main tools will be protein technologies and advanced bioinformatics.

The director of the Pre-Diabetes Centre is Professor Jiarui Wu, a vice-president of SIBS. Professor Wu has stated that the Centre is the first of its kind in China (and possibly in the world) and that it will focus on preventing diabetes from developing in its earlier stages. If the Pre-Diabetes Centre succeeds, we hope to develop individual treatment regimens for type 2 patients. We also aim to lay the foundation for the development of new biological medicines for the treatment or prevention of diabetes.

Novo Nordisk has been present in China since 1994. Today the company employs more than 2,000 people in China. Novo Nordisk is working closely with government institutions and diabetes prevention organisations in China to develop patient education programs and encourage patients to lead a healthy lifestyle. During the past five years, over 150,000 physicians and nurses were trained in Diabetes Treatment and Prevention Guidelines that were developed in cooperation between Novo Nordisk and the Ministry of Health of China.

Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is a comprehensive national research institution with half-a-century of academic knowledge accumulation and tradition. SIBS has more than 1,100 researchers.