Novo Nordisk announced today that the company will expand its Research and Development Centre China in Beijing from currently 100 to 200 employees by 2015. The expansion will mainly be dedicated to a new Diabetes Research Unit.
Novo Nordisk was the first international pharmaceutical company to establish R&D in China in 1997. Until now, the Centre has been an integrated part of the Biopharmaceutical Research Unit at Novo Nordisk and as such has worked closely with colleagues in Denmark to build up expertise in protein engineering and purification, as well as immuno-technologies like generation and improvement of monoclonal antibodies.
By doubling the current staff at our R&D Centre, Novo Nordisk acknowledges the achievements of the Chinese staff since the Centre was established in 1997. And once again, we demonstrate our long term commitment to take part in the scientific and technological development of China, while at the same time helping Novo Nordisk to get access to the tremendous resource of talents, ideas and innovation in China said Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, executive vice president and Chief Science Officer at Novo Nordisk.
The future research scope will now be broadened to include biopharmaceutical approaches to develop new treatments against diabetes as well as the conduct of pharmacological studies. The R&D team in China will eventually take part in all aspects of drug discovery, from innovation to developing drug candidates for clinical studies in humans.
