The Business Call to Action (BCtA) is pleased to announce that Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company with more than 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care, has joined BCtA with an initiative to improve access to safe and affordable diabetes care for the working poor people in Kenya. The company aims to reach 1.5 million people with a grassroots awareness campaign involving community leaders, healthcare workers and peer educators on diabetes risk factors, the importance of early detection and proper treatment of the disease.

Novo Nordisk's awareness campaign builds on the company's growing business in Kenya, including its successful effort to limit price mark-ups of insulin products. In 2013, a vial of insulin cost up to KES 1,800 (US$17) today, that cost has been reduced to a more affordable KES 500 (US$5) through supply chain optimisation. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that approximately 750,000 people are living with diabetes in Kenya; 73 percent of them are undiagnosed.