Novo Nordisk is taking the lead in communicating with the public through the launch of two new websites dedicated to clinical trials and bioethics respectively. Both sites are aimed at a wide target group including patients, doctors, investors, experts and the general public.

"The new clinical trials portal will provide an overview of all Novo Nordisk's clinical trials around the world. It will cover phase II III and IV trials, which means both before and after the market entry point. Doctors can find relevant studies for their patients, while patients can see for themselves if there are clinical trials they may be interested in taking part in. But the website also caters for others who, in one way or another, wish to know how Novo Nordisk conducts its trials," says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, chief science officer, Novo Nordisk.

He adds that the new portal also includes information about Novo Nordisk's global ethical standards and guidelines for clinical trials.

Novo Nordisk started to publish the results of its clinical trials on www.ClinicalStudyResults.org and to post information about the trials on the US government registry www.clinicaltrials.gov in 2005. The new site at novonordisk-trials.com makes the information available directly from Novo Nordisk to the public.

At the same time, Novo Nordisk is collating all information about bioethics in the R&D section on novonordisk.com. Here anyone can read about Novo Nordisk's position on bioethical issues relating to clinical trials, animal experimentation, stem cell research, gene technology etc.

"We wanted to provide a full overview of Novo Nordisk's approach and performance within bioethics. Bioethics is an integral aspect of our R&D activities. As far as we know, this is the first dedicated bioethics website made available by a pharmaceutical company," says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen.

Among many other things, the new bioethics site offers a rare insight into the world of Novo Nordisk's experimental animals through a sequence of short film clips showing scenes from their everyday lives.

Visitors will also be able to order a new film about bioethics in Novo Nordisk entitled three days searching for better treatment. In 35 minutes, the film covers three days in the lives of three employees involved in the process of developing new medicines, showing how bioethical concerns are constantly present in the work they do.