At Novo Nordisk, our purpose is to drive change to defeat diabetes and other serious chronic diseases such as obesity and rare blood and endocrine disorders. We do so by pioneering scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to our medicines and working to prevent and ultimately cure disease. Digitalization is shaping all industries and we, as a pharmaceutical company, want to explore what is the role that we can play in the growing wave of changes. For this reason we created the Business Innovation Garage, an area in which we explore the impact of digital technologies and trends in our business. The Garage mission is to identify and drive growth opportunities created by emerging technology on the digital arena. An important part of the Garage activities is to partner with external players that can contribute to Novo Nordisk’s digital transformation efforts.

Q: What are the main objectives of Novo Nordisk’s partnership with Plug and Play and Startup Creasphere?

Our core believe is that most of the industry changes are shaped by external players and that in order to succeed in the mid and long term it is critical for Novo Nordisk to identify, understand and collaborate with startups and other relevant digital players. We are working intensively to establish a framework to source, define pilots, test and learn, and Creasphere allows us to piggy bag on a working model and scale-up quickly. We are very much looking forward to work with the first batch of startups.”

Q: How can startups benefit from Novo Nordisk being a Startup Creasphere Partner?

Novo Nordisk is a pioneer in scientific breakthroughs in the areas of diabetes, obesity and other endocrine diseases and our teams will be at the disposal of the startups to bring the right data, expertise and market access when implementing the pilot phases. We are keen to explore and exchange with entrepreneurs to get the most out of the programme together.

Matt Dugan
Director of the Business Innovation Garage, Novo Nordisk

Lluc Diaz
Open Innovation Lead, Novo Nordisk