The Hindu Business Line : Novo Nordisk survey to take stock of diabetes control

MR A.K. DAS (left), Dean, JIPMER, and Mr Sanjeev Shishoo, Vice-President, International Operations-Regional Office Far East, Novo Nordisk, at a press conference in Bangalore on Monday. — G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Nov. 13

Starting January 2007, Novo Nordisk will take a hard look at how Indian diabetics are keeping their disease in check.

`IMPROVE,' a year-long survey of awareness and disease control, will involve 1,200 doctors, 18,000 patients and camps across 160 small towns.

The study is part of Novo's global study of how the disease is being managed, according to Mr Sanjeev Shishoo, Vice-President (International Operations), Regional Office Far East.

It will promote and use a different and more recent yardstick, the HbA1c test, in the 2,000 planned workshops. The test has been in existence for nearly five years but is not widely known, he said.

The investment of the Danish major in the campaign was not given; the HbA1c tests alone, at Rs 150-200 each, could cost Novo Nordisk Rs 55-72 lakh.

The haemoglobin A1c or glycosated haemoglobin test at one shot gives the average blood glucose level over the last three months, compared to the conventional blood sugar test, said Dr A.K. Das, Director of JIPMER, who is associated with the study.

The survey will assess the knowledge of doctors and patients and attitudes towards controlling glucose levels in the country, where more than a third of the population is diabetic.

The doctors would be enlisted and trained from January. Each doctor would counsel, test and monitor the diabetics, monitor the levels of 15 patients and do a follow-up after six months, said Mr Melvin D'Souza, Managing Director of Novo Nordisk India.

Dr Das said that a preliminary survey of 433 patients from eight cities exposed large-scale ignorance about disease control and laxity among doctors and patients in keeping the glucose levels under check.

Mr Shishoo said that HbA1c has emerged as a reliable supplementary indicator of disease control.

Every one percentage point drop in the HbA1c level means 33 per cent reduction of diabetic mortality rates.

By this measure, the current Indian diabetic average is 7.5-8 per cent against the threshold limit of six per cent.

This has to be brought down with better education on controlling the disease, he said.