Egypt signs deal with Danish company to develop diabetes treatments

Egypt signed a deal in late September with the Danish medical company Novo Nordisk to develop new drug and treatment solutions for diabetes, according to a statement published on the Danish Embassy in Egypt’s official Facebook page.

Diabetes is a rapidly growing problem in Egypt, which currently ranks ninth in the world for the prevalence of the disease. According to Zagazig University professor Abbas Oraby, diabetes rates soared by 83 percent in Egypt over the last 15 years alone, a far faster rate than the global trend. The disease affects at least 11 percent of the population — at least half of whom don’t know they have it.

The problem has been linked to the skyrocketing rate of obesity. According to the British medical journal The Lancet, at least 70 percent of Egypt’s adult population is overweight.

Egypt currently imports and subsidizes insulin, a system that is increasingly difficult to maintain given the country’s three-year-long economic slump. The contract between Novo Nordisk Egypt and the Egyptian Holding Company for Vaccines paved the way to start production on human insulin vials, with the goal of having the first locally made batch of insulin ready by 2018.

Novo Nordisk also signed another deal with the National Diabetes Institute to upgrade Egypt’s healthcare system, including establishing 26 new diabetes healthcare centers nationwide over the next five years.

“We have more than 180 deaths related to diabetes complications each day in this country alone, according to the International Diabetes Federation. That is scary. Someone has to do something. We are trying to state an example to the rest of the world, by helping the government and not just sell insulin, but also add value, too,” said Mohamed al-Dababy, the general manager of Novo Nordisk Egypt.

While Novo Nordisk is interested in new markets for their products, Dababy claimed the company is looking at more than sales.

“Treating diabetes is not only about making insulin,” he said. “It goes beyond this. You need educated physicians who can understand the disease and advise the patient. We will finance and open 26 state-of-the-art diabetes clinics across the country. We will sponsor the education of some physicians. We will help improve the diabetes treatment by making insulin available, but also through lending the government a helping hand to treat the disease in the right way.”

Novo Nordisk Egypt employs around 150 people. The company has pursued aggressive expansion in the region, almost doubling the number of employees in Egypt since last year. The new deal is said to bring new jobs to Egypt, but the exact figure is yet to be disclosed.

”It is probably an area where we will see a lot of investments, not just for the medicinal industry but also in infrastructure, during the next 10 to 15 years. We think this was a good time to invest more aggressively than earlier,” Mike Doustdar, the chief of international operations at Novo Nordisk, told Danish news agency Ritzau Finans in June.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, Health Minister Adel Adawy, Danish Ambassador Pernille Dahler Kardel and the company representatives were all in attendance at the contract signing.