The world is changing – and so is the Novo Nordisk Foundation. While Denmark will remain our centre of gravity, our outlook will be increasingly international as we play our part in tackling some of the biggest threats to the health of people and planet. Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO of the Foundation, is exploring these changes through a series of articles, “The Road Ahead”. This is the first.
When I was six, my family and I moved to England. My school was a strict one in the old-school style. We were tested constantly and simply expected to deliver. I met many English people, of course, but my classmates were from across Europe. I learned early that people from different places bring different perspectives and skills. “Okay,” I remember thinking, “Denmark is great, but Denmark is not the only thing in the world.”
Those two lessons have stuck with me. First, you must use all your talent and all your energy to always do your best. Second, when you put the people with the best skills together, you get better outcomes.
Now, as we at the Novo Nordisk Foundation increase our efforts to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, those two lessons have never been more relevant. We will use all our talent and energy, and we will join with others – people and organisations around the world who share our vision of a healthier future for people and planet.
Global challenges need global solutions
Since the Foundation was established in 1924, it has helped drive advances in medical and broader scientific research through grants large and small, most awarded in the Nordic region. Over the last decade, we have taken steps to work more internationally – building partnerships across continents and opening new regional offices.
Now, as our resources have grown and the world changes, it’s time for us to expand and deepen our international efforts.
Globally, social and health inequities are leaving millions of people vulnerable to disease and unable to access quality care. Noncommunicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are on the rise, while infectious diseases pose a persistent threat. Modern food systems are failing to meet the needs of the global population and causing untold damage to our planet – and the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly violent.
Such global, interconnected challenges need global solutions forged through collaboration. The task is mammoth – but, as a well-resourced foundation committed to the health of people and planet, we have a responsibility, alongside others, to do what we can.
Regions in focus
In the coming years, while Denmark will remain our centre of gravity, we will do more beyond those borders. We will have a particular focus on the Nordics and Europe, East Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.
It’s clear that Europe is at a crossroads. With the right inputs, regulatory changes and partnerships, the continent could be a powerhouse in generating knowledge and solutions for the biggest global challenges – and we will do our best to help make that a reality.
Further afield, we will expand our work in East Africa and South and Southeast Asia. These regions face severe health and climate-related challenges but have the potential to be at the forefront of developing solutions that are relevant for the people who need them.
Wherever we work, we will work hard to make sure that the research and innovation we fund is of genuine value for the communities and regions most affected, partnering with people and organisations who have the knowledge, skills and experience that, combined with ours, can help move the needle.
Health of people and planet
One area we believe we can move the needle is chronic diseases, in particular cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs) – a grouping that includes diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease and obesity. CMDs account for a third of deaths globally, while hundreds of millions of people live with the often-debilitating effects. And the numbers are rising. With a century of experience in funding research on these diseases, we are well positioned to take up the challenge – alongside others – of improving prevention, diagnosis and care globally, and breaking the curve.
Like CMDs, antimicrobial resistance is a global health issue that is often – and frustratingly – under-prioritised. We have been working hard to drive legislative, scientific and innovative progress – and we’re expanding our efforts on all three.
In 2021 we made the decision to prioritise the health of our planet alongside that of its people. The two are of course inextricably linked, perhaps most obviously in agri-food systems, a key focus for our growing international work. We want to see sustainable systems that work with the natural environment, rather than against it, and provide growing populations with nutritious food.
Guided by our 2030 strategy, we will also continue our support for scientific progress in areas from climate mitigation and biotechnology to regenerative medicine and infectious diseases – both in Denmark and around the world.
Crucial to progress in all these areas – and many more beyond our remit – are advanced technologies including AI and quantum computing. Used wisely, they have phenomenal potential, and we will work hard to harness that.
A promise kept
The tasks ahead are tough. But what reassures me about the future is the century behind us.
Our foundation exists because of a promise made in 1922. Danish physiologist August Krogh was visiting John Macleod, a biochemist in Toronto and part of a group who had recently discovered how to make insulin, a revolutionary treatment for people with diabetes. Macleod gave Krogh permission to produce the hormone using their methods and sell it in Scandinavia, as long as the money made would be used for the good of society. Krogh kept his word, establishing a foundation that received profits from his company to reinvest in research and society.
In the century since, the Foundation has granted more than 66 billion Danish crowns (€8.8 billion) – most of that in the last decade. Much of the work we’ve funded recently has yet to come to fruition – such is the way in research and development – but the signs are good.
Within three years of starting work in a phenomenally difficult area of medicine, the scientists at the Center for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW, are taking two therapies into clinical trials – one for Parkinson’s and one for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency – with others in the pipeline.
Equally exciting is the progress towards a radically new type of food production that can turn one of our biggest environmental challenges – carbon dioxide (CO2) – into nutritious food. A group of research and industry partners, funded by us and Gates Foundation, has developed a way to turn CO₂ into acetate – a substance that can replace sugar in fermentation processes often used to make food. The consortium is now entering a new phase, where promising solutions will be scaled and food prototypes will be produced and tested.
Just two examples of many, but they epitomise our Foundation’s way of working. We strive to be bold and take risks, to champion knowledge-sharing and promote collaboration across silos.
This approach will continue to guide us, but we also need to evolve. We will look to our current and new partners to guide us, knowing that there’s much to learn and we won’t always get things right.
Looking back – and ahead
It’s more than six decades since I learned as a young boy in England that tough tasks are best solved with others. I’ve now seen it first-hand many times.
In the 1990s, I saw how breaking down the barriers between groups of siloed scientists led to stunning breakthroughs in medical research, enabling the development of new treatments that now benefit millions of people.
Much more recently, I’m privileged to play a role in our Foundation’s collaboration with Wellcome and the Gates Foundation – two organisations with phenomenal experience in global health and sets of knowledge and skills that complement our own. If we get it right, working together, we could improve lives around the world.
The same is true whether it’s cardiometabolic disease or AMR, food systems or quantum technology. We won’t always succeed – but we will always do our best, we will work with others who share our vision, and we will commit once again to keep our Foundation’s founding promise.
Look out for Part Two of “The Road Ahead” soon.
