Community engagement

Companies are expected to assume responsibility as corporate citizens, contributing to society by sharing resources, profits and competences as well as by striving to reduce any harmful or negative impacts on humans or the environment resulting from their activities.

While there are clearly distinct sociocultural and national practices in this area, there appears to be a general convergence on the idea of 'giving back to' as a mutually rewarding activity. Society and local communities benefit from companies' investments and engagement, and for the companies there can be clear long-term business benefits to a community engagement strategy.

To Novo Nordisk, community engagement is much more than philantrophy. It is embedded in the company's history and values and is all about behaving in a respectful way and weighing business interests against those of stakeholders and society at large - balancing short-term and long-term interests, commercial and social.

Novo Nordisk's social responsibility extends to employees, customers, business partners and the communities of which we form part. Community engagement may have many forms, from employees volunteering their time and resources for community work, to neighbour hearings on environmental concerns, to investments in infrastructure, and to advocacy and raising awareness of healthy living and lifestyle-related health risks.

Novo Nordisk is committed to contributing to society both globally and in the local communities in which we operate. The overall approach to community engagement is primarily focused on the company's main area of expertise, diabetes. Whether it is about implementing long-term sustainable solutions or responding to immediate natural disasters, Novo Nordisk is at the forefront of providing treatment and care to people with diabetes.

Since early 2003 employees at Novo Nordisk have been engaged in the company-wide volunteer programme TakeAction! The annual number of social activities within our business areas and social and environmental activities in the local community has risen from 48 in 2003 to 99 in 2005. In line with the company's focus on Youth and prevention, a TakeAction! Schoolchallenge was launched during 2005, encouraging employees to promote healthy living among schoolchildren.

In 2005 Novo Nordisk employees worldwide raised more than DKK 2 million to improve diabetes care. Policies and guidelines serve to ensure that TakeAction! initiatives are conducted in compliance with the standards and practices to which Novo Nordisk adheres.

Novo Nordisk primarily sponsors activities within the company's main area of expertise, diabetes. This strategy was chosen as we want to be actively involved in the planning, execution and/or follow-up of the activities to ensure as high an impact as possible.

In 2005 the sponsorship activities were particularily focused on awareness-raising and prevention of diabetes among young people. Among the many activities was the sponsorship of the Annual National Schools Sports Day in Denmark, where Novo Nordisk played an active part in promoting the acitivity. In addition to the corporate sponsorship programme, Novo Nordisk affiliates worldwide sponsor a high number of local activities.

Over the last couple of years, the world has witnessed a number of natural disasters, including the tsunami in South East Asia in December 2004, Hurricane Katrina in the US in August 2005, and the earthquake in Southeast Pakistan in October 2005. On each occasion Novo Nordisk has responded promptly to the immediate need for help. The company made a DKK 1 million donation to the Danish Red Cross in December 2004 to help bring water, food and shelter to the tsunami's victims. In early 2005 Novo Nordisk also established a recovery fund of DKK 5 million to help rebuild the healthcare infrastructure in the affected countries. In September 2005 Novo Nordisk donated USD 1 million in addition to providing insulin products and advanced delivery devices to help relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In Pakistan in October 2005 Novo Nordisk worked closely with the national Ministry of Health to establish six diabetes field clinics.

In the countries that have been affected by these disasters, Novo Nordisk employees are spending time and money on helping victims and rebuilding communities.

Besides making financial donations, Novo Nordisk contributes to socio-economic welfare by securing and creating employment, by developing the competences of its employees, and by making products and offering services that provide better health for people with diabetes and others whose healthcare needs are served by the company. The economic stakeholder model illustrates Novo Nordisk, its economic stakeholders and the interactions that drive economic growth in society.

As a response to the diabetes pandemic, Novo Nordisk is driving a number of activities to raise awareness of diabetes and improve the healthcare systems. Corporate investments in financial terms are modest when compared with the impact and the local benefits.

Building national healthcare capacity and developing national disease strategies is at the heart of the National Diabetes programme (NDP). This initiative aims to improve access to diabetes treatment of diabetes based on partnerships with different stakeholders. NDP is spearheaded by Novo Nordisk through its affiliates. Activities reach out widely and include educating nurses, doctors and patients, supporting diabetes patient organisations, equipping diabetes clinics, and working with governments to design national diabetes strategies .

Since 2001 Novo Nordisk has offered human insulin to the public health systems in the 50 Least Developed Countries, as defined by the UN, at prices not to exceed 20% of the average price in the industrialised countries of North America, Europe and Japan. In 2005 Novo Nordisk offered this pricing policy to 50 countries and sold human insulin to a total of 32 countries at or below this price, compared to 33 in 2004.

Access to diabetes care is also an issue in the developed world. Some groups of people, due to their ethnic background and genetic predisposition, experience a higher incidence of diabetes, and some of them also experience inequities in access to care. In 2005 Novo Nordisk began to focus on understanding and better serving the needs of low-income minority populations. Here are two examples of initiatives:

• The Changing Diabetes Dialogue series, aimed at working with partners to identify barriers to care for low-income minorities. Dialogues so far have looked at communities in Greece and the Netherlands. The goal is to gather examples of best practice and make these available to those who work with diabetes worldwide.
• A three-year project with the University of California at Irvine in the US to identify improvement in quality of care and cultural beliefs about diabetes among Vietnamese living in California. A 'coaching' technique is being tested in which people with diabetes coach one another, as such an approach may be effective in close-knit communities for improve treatment outcome.

Novo Nordisk is actively supporting a patientcentred approach to diabtetes care through collaboration with healthcare professionals. The Novo Nordisk-initiated DAWN programme (Diabetes Attitudes Wishes and Needs) is based on the largest study ever conducted into the psyhosocial aspects of diabetes. The 2001 study was carried out in collaboration with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and revealed, among other things, that there are significant psychosocial barriers to improving diabetes treatment and that improvements can be achieved through a patient-centred approach by healthcare professionals and healthcare systems around the world. Read more at www.dawnstudy.com.

This page has been assessed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its assessment of Novo Nordisk’s statement that it reports ‘in accordance’ with GRI. Please refer to Audit and assurance for a full description of the nature of assurance offered.