Novo Nordisk to open $130 million diabetes labs
pharmafile | November 3, 2014 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | Denmark, Måløv, Novo Nordisk, Tresiba, Victoza, diabetes
Novo Nordisk has invested $130 million in new diabetes laboratories as the company looks to focus more strongly on the disease area.
The new ‘Diabetes Research House’ will be located at Novo’s R&D campus in Måløv, Denmark, and will accommodate approximately 350 employees. Construction has already started and the facility is expected to be ready by early 2016.
“The new lab facility will provide an environment for cutting-edge diabetes research within biotechnology and protein chemistry,” says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, executive vice president and chief science officer of Novo Nordisk.
“Here our researchers will be working closely together with leading scientists in Denmark and abroad on the discovery and development of new medicines for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.”
The site comprises two laboratory wings, a middle building with office space, and an auditorium seating 450 people. It will have a floorage of 16,500 square metres distributed on three storeys.
The Danish firm’s new investment in its main diseases area comes soon after it scrapped its inflammatory disorders activities following the discontinuation of its rheumatoid arthritis treatment anti-IL-20.
Thomsen says that the loss of anti-IL-20 would delay Novo Nordisk’s earliest possible entry into the market to the late 2020s, and so the company wishes to instead focus its efforts on the ‘significant unmet opportunities’ remaining in diabetes prevention, complications, and obesity.
Novo Nordisk is the world’s largest producer of insulin, and recently saw an 8.5% increase in sales for the third quarter driven by its insulin drugs. The firm’s new diabetes treatment Victoza (liraglutide) and its Lantus competitor Levemir (insulin detemir) both beat sales expectations.
It is also planning to set up a dedicated obesity R&D operation in Seattle, US, and has several new diabetes drugs in its pipeline and awaiting approval – including new insulin treatment Tresiba (insulin degludec) and Xultophy, which combines insulin degludec and liraglutide.
Novo Nordisk also has a strong presence in haemophilia care, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy. The company has recently been pulled up by US authorities however, over potential manufacturing issues at its facility in Kalundborg which is the largest insulin production site in the world.
George Underwood
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