Novo Nordisk joins Business Call to Action with diabetes awareness campaign

About one third of the world’s population lacks regular access to essential healthcare like insulin. Photograph: Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk’s campaign builds on the company’s growing business in Kenya and will aim to reach 1.5 million people there

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 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 KES1,800 (£11) – today, that cost has been reduced to a more affordable KES500 (£3) through supply chain optimisation. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that approximately 750,000 people are living with diabetes in Kenya. 73% of them are undiagnosed.

“About one third of the world’s population lacks regular access to essential healthcare like insulin. This is a particularly serious issue in low- and middle-income countries, which are home to 80% of people living with diabetes today,” says Charlotte Ersbøll, corporate vice president, Novo Nordisk. “At Novo Nordisk, we apply triple bottom line principles to ensure accountability for our social and environmental impact as well as financial performance. We are pleased that our inclusive business model has been recognised by the Business Call to Action and we look forward to engaging with the organisation and its members to strengthen our work”. 

Novo Nordisk’s base of the pyramid project in Kenya is a public-private partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, the Kenyan county governments, the faith-based organizations Christian Health Association of Kenya and the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops. In the awareness campaign, the company is also partnering with the Kenya Diabetes Management and Information Centre, which has extensive experience in health screening and diabetes-awareness activities. 

The project targets the working poor around the world who have difficulty accessing health services. The aim of the project is to develop scalable, sustainable and profitable solutions that increase access to diabetes care for people in low- and middle-income countries worldwide.

“Novo Nordisk’s diabetes efforts in Kenya exemplify how inclusive business has furthered Millennium Development Goal 6 (combat disease) and 8 (develop a global partnership for development), and how that work can flow seamlessly into the soon-to-be-ratified Sustainable Development Goals (3 – ensuring healthy lives and 17 – strengthening the global partnership),” said Suba Sivakumaran, BCtA programme manager. “BCtA is pleased to welcome Novo Nordisk as a member of BCtA and to follow the impact of its business model on health in Kenyan communities.”

Novo Nordisk is also running base of the pyramid projects in Nigeria, Ghana and India and is currently working on scaling up the project to other African countries.

Content on this page is provided by Business Call to Action, and originally appeared on the The Guardian Business and the Sustainable Development Goals Hub