Number of patients could rise to 12.8 million by 2035. PHOTO: FILE
Pakistan has a great potential to improve quality of life of people with diabetes and reduce the healthcare cost, said Lars Rebien Sørensen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk.
Sørensen, who was in Islamabad early this month to attend a Diabetes Leadership Forum, in an exclusive interview with the Express Tribune said to make real difference for people with diabetes, all stakeholders, both public and private must work together and focus more on improving awareness among the people about the risks and how they can better manage their health,” he suggested.
Currently there are 6.7 million diabetics in Pakistan and the number could rise to 12.8 million by 2035, which is a major public health challenge that undermines social and economic development, he said.
In Pakistan 50 per cent people do not know they have diabetes therefore delayed diagnoses and inadequate treatment of it can cause severe and costly complications such as blindness, cardiovascular disease, renal failure, foot problems, damaged nerve and in pregnant women it can result miscarriage and still birth, he said.
“The government can facilitate poor people by reimbursing the cost of medicines so that just because of not having money they would not stop its treatment,” he suggested.
He was of the view that aside from the dual burden of dealing with communicable disease and the steep rise of non-communicable disease -- diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and cancers among others- the county’s health indicators leave room for improvement with rates of infant and maternal mortalities higher than the goals set by the Millennium Development Goals.
“Healthy lifestyle, balanced diet, regular exercise, saying no to junk food and fizzy drinks can help a lot to say no to diabetes,” said Sørensen.
Taking about treatment, he said insulin in Pakistan is available at a very low cost.
He said Novo Nordisk serves approximately 78,000 people with diabetes in Pakistan and provides both earlier-generation insulin and modern insulin supported by state-of-the art devices that contribute to improved quality of life.
“However it is looking forward to introduce innovative drugs but facing few challenges due to price regulations,” he said.
Sørensen further informed that Novo Nordisk is providing training programmes for doctors, pharmacists and paramedical staff to raise awareness and improve diagnosis and care.
He said these include lectures by locally and internationally recognized diabetes, experts, small symposium and educational grants for institution and physicians.
Sharing the background about his company he said it began operating in Pakistan in 1989 in collaboration with independent distributors and in October 2005 it was established in Karachi as Novo Nordisk Pharmacy Limited and working independently since then.
It has 70 to 80 employees in Pakistan based in all major cities including Multan, Faisalabad, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
More recently, Novo Nordisk in Pakistan has initiated an observational study on the safety, efficacy and convenience of insulin devices in people with diabetes. It is also collaborating with the Haemophilia Patients Welfare Society and the National Institute of Blood Disorder.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2014.
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