Novo Nordisk participates in the vfa campaign “Research is the best medicine”.

02.10.2019 13:08

The Association of Research-Based Drug Companies (vfa) has launched its 2019 ambassador campaign under the title “Research is the best medicine”. Eight YouTubers and bloggers search for special stories, places and people in healthcare companies. The diabetes specialist Novo Nordisk also took part and provides insights into its research approaches for future diabetes treatment.

“We have been constantly developing innovations since our company was founded over 95 years ago,” says Jesper Wenzel Larsen, Managing Director of Novo Nordisk Germany. “With our campaign contribution we would like to show how important long-term research is in order to further improve the lives of people with diabetes.”

Novo Nordisk has opened its research doors for the vfa campaign: The well-known presenter and knowledge YouTuber Christoph Krachten (Youtube channel: Clixoom Science & Fiction) visited the headquarters in Copenhagen and spoke to Dr. Marcus Schindler, Head of Global Drug Discovery at Novo Nordisk, about his work. The detailed video report can be found on the campaign page.

One of the projects that Krachten presents in his article is a microcapsule called SOMA (self-orienting millimeter-scale applicator). It is about the size of a blueberry and is intended to enable the oral administration of large molecules, such as insulin. The capsule was developed in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has already tested positive in animal experiments. “We hope that perhaps in ten years we will be able to offer patients an oral form of insulin administration as a replacement for syringes or pens,” says Dr. Marcus Schindler.

During his visit, Krachten was also able to tour Novo Nordisk's stem cell laboratory. There, the company is working on differentiating stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells. “The project is still in an early phase,” explained Dr. Marcus Schindler. But Novo Nordisk is intensively pushing this area of research forward - around 100 stem cell researchers are currently working for the company. “Stem cell therapies are an important step in our journey to find a cure for diabetes. It is our common goal to make this a reality one day.”