Global healthcare company Novo Nordisk has joined forces with the University of Oxford to discover new approaches for treating type 2 diabetes.
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As part of the partnership, Novo Nordisk is also investing more than £115m in a new research centre on the premises of the University of Oxford over a period of ten years.
Known as Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford, the new research centre will provide employment for up to 100 Novo Nordisk researchers.
It will focus on innovation within early stage research that can substantially impact future treatment of diabetes, as well as its complications.
Novo Nordisk chief science officer and executive vice-president Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said: "This collaboration brings together some of the world's sharpest minds in the field of diabetes to seek new targets for therapeutic innovation.
“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."
Under the partnership, cross-fertilisation of ideas between academic researchers from the University of Oxford and Novo Nordisk’s researchers would be encouraged to sponsor the collaborative research.
University of Oxford Regius professor of medicine Sir John Bell 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.”
Novo Nordisk and University of Oxford have collaborated since 2013 through the International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, which was extended in 2015.
Image: The new Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford. Photo: courtesy of Novo Nordisk A/S.
