Performance in 2004
Novo Nordisk sets goals to reduce, refine and replace animal experiments and to improve animal welfare. Hence, despite a significantly higher research activity in early phases, when animal experimentation is required, the number of animals purchased in 2004 only rose by 10% to 47,311 animals, of which 96% are mice, transgenic mice and rats.
Division on number of animals purchased per species
The goal to totally remove animal test types for biological product control by 2004 had to be postponed till 2005. An FDA approval, obtained in 2004, enables Novo Nordisk to considerably reduce (by approximately 80%) the number of animals used for biological product control in one of the two remaining tests. A 60% reduction in the use of rabbits has already been achieved by end 2004. A novel test for glucagon was fully implemented in the third quarter of 2004. The test uses isolated cells in vitro rather than living animals, and rabbits are therefore no longer used for this purpose.
In 2003, Novo Nordisk developed new, state-of-the-art housing standards for experimental animals used at Novo Nordisk. The facilities for rabbits and rodents, designed to encourage natural behaviour and minimise stress, were the result of collaboration with animal welfare experts and the Danish Animal Welfare Society. In 2004 new facilities were taken into use for most of the inhouse animals. The goal is full implementation of the new Novo Nordisk housing standards by 2007 for all animals used for Novo Nordisk's in-house testing in Denmark.
As the only pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk was invited to participate in a new network of about 100 leading European biosimulation experts. The project, ‘Biosimulation – A New Tool in Drug Development’ is driven by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and sponsored by the European Commission with a grant at 10.7 million Euros. It is expected to encourage methods that can reduce the need for animal experimentation. Novo Nordisk is lead coordinator on ethical aspects and education.
Biosimulation is a relatively new discipline, which uses many of the advanced methods of chaos research to describe and explore biological systems using computer models. Copenhagen is considered an international leader in this area, with strong teams at DTU, the University of Copenhagen, and Novo Nordisk.
Novo Nordisk mostly uses biosimulation in early stage projects, but has also employed the method in late-stage projects – for example, to help explain the predictability of Levemir®. In addition to helping Novo Nordisk design new medicines, biosimulation could also one day change the way Novo Nordisk tests them. It is hoped that biosimulation will enable a faster and cheaper drug development while at the same time relatively reducing the number of experimental animals and human trials.
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