Danish company invests £115m into UK diabetes research

Denmark's Novo Nordisk is set to invest £115 million in creating a new diabetes research centre in Oxford, with funding to span over 10 years.

The facility is expected to employ 100 academics and scientists, with the company partnering up with the University of Oxford to identify innovative ways of treating type 2 diabetes.

Mads Thomsen, executive vice-president and chief science officer of Novo Nordisk, said: “This collaboration brings together some of the world’s sharpest minds in the field of diabetes to seek new targets for therapeutic innovation. It combines Novo Nordisk’s 90 years’ experience in developing treatments for diabetes with the expertise of world leading scientists from the University of Oxford. Our vision is that the unique combination of industrial and academic know-how will eventually lead to a new generation of treatments to improve the lives of people with type 2 diabetes.”

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine, University of Oxford, said: “We see the collaboration with Novo Nordisk as an outstanding opportunity to mix competence embedded at our campus with Novo Nordisk’s groundbreaking research and results in diabetes. This collaboration underlines the importance of shared research and cutting-edge science across boundaries.

“Employees at Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford and researchers at the University of Oxford will have the opportunity for daily interaction to share knowledge and insights that will potentially produce new medicines for people living with type 2 diabetes and its complications.”

Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said: “I welcome Novo Nordisk’s investment at Oxford University, which is a vote of confidence in the UK’s position as a world-leader in science and research.

“A thriving science and technology sector is key to supporting economic growth, and the government has committed to support further research and innovation in all sectors with an additional £4.7 billion R&D spending by 2020-21."

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This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

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