Novo Nordisk has unveiled plans to invest £115 million over 10 years into a new research centre housed by the University of Oxford, marking a major boost for UK life sciences.
The move is part of a deal between the Danish drugmaker and the University to work together to discover innovative approaches for treating type II diabetes.
Around 100 researchers at the Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford will focus on innovation within early stage research that has potential to “substantially impact” future treatment of both the condition and its complications.
“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,” said Novo’s chief science officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen.
“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 II diabetes”.
“This collaboration underlines the importance of shared research and cutting-edge science across boundaries,” added Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford. “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 II diabetes and its complications”.
Further specifics of the deal structure weren’t revealed, but BBC News reports that “Mads Thomsen made it very clear that the lion’s share of any commercial spoils will go to the Danish company”, which will develop and manufacture any successful candidates.
