Animal ethics

Animal experiments are essential for the discovery, development and production of pharmaceutical and medical products, and are required by regulatory authorities. They are also a source of concern for society and for Novo Nordisk. While we cannot replace all animal experiments, we look for ways to reduce or replace animal experiments, and we follow high standards in the housing, care and use of animals.

For the first time, in 2009, in-house animal studies were performed outside Denmark with the opening of animal facility at the Novo Nordisk China R&D Centre in Beijing.

 

Reduce, refine and replace animal experiments

Novo Nordisk has a long history of engaging with stakeholders such as animal welfare organisations to find solutions for improving the welfare of experimental animals. Novo Nordisk recognises that not all animal experiments can be replaced in the foreseeable future, but we will only use animals where no available and acceptable alternative exists. Novo Nordisk actively supports the principle of The Three Rs: to Reduce, Refine, and Replace animal experiments, and has been setting new standards in this area. One example is our state-of-the-art housing standards for dogs and rabbits.


Removal of biological test types

During the last decade Novo Nordisk has succeeded in achieving regulatory approval for the total removal of all biological test types for product control in most countries. Only two test types remain to be removed to fully eliminate the use of laboratory animals for production control.


Pioneer in biosimulation

Through the use of modelled drug experiments, Novo Nordisk has not only made drug experiments more efficient, computer models have also reduced the number of tests in animals as well as in humans. Indeed, Novo Nordisk is a frontrunner of computerised simulations of drug experiments - also known as biosimulations – a tool which proves to have both cost beneficial and competitive advantages.