Two new clinics were created as part of Novo Nordisk's Base of the Pyramid programme, which is creating partnerships to build sustainable access to diabetes care for people with low incomes. The first of them was inaugurated by representatives of Novo Nordisk, the Ghanaian government and local partners on 4 April.

"Ghana has one of the highest rates of undiagnosed diabetes – 73%, or more than 330,000 residents, are unaware of the disease. This is a ticking bomb unless we do something about it," Mike Doustdar, senior vice president of Novo Nordisk's International Operations, said during the inauguration. "This is one of two initiatives here in Ghana, and the plan is to go for four. And we will hopefully go from four to eight, and from Ghana to other countries."

We open our doors

The two clinics serve very different areas of Accra, one suburban and relatively prosperous, the other populated by people with lower incomes. They join other BOP clinics in Nigeria, Kenya and India.

"Novo Nordisk, we open our doors to you. And whatever you think can help you to do more of what you're doing, we are willing to help you," Honourable Rashid Pelpuo, Ghana's minister of public private partnerships, said during the inauguration.

"In Africa, when such projects come, they are always 'in the pipeline'. But in this one, the pipeline has delivered," added Kwaku Leboah, finance and administrative manager for PALB pharmaceuticals, a local partner to the project.

The clinics began receiving patients even before they opened. Hundreds of local people gathered for blood measurements and health tests, many of them pregnant women who crossed the street from other departments of the hospital where it is located.

Already after its first day of operation, the clinic's carefully handwritten list of blood measurements offered a clear message: many people in Ghana are going about their lives with undiagnosed diabetes.

The BoP segment is defined as the 1 billion people globally with low-incomes, the working poor, who earn between 1500 and 3000 US dollars yearly.

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with more than 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. The company also has leading positions within haemophilia care, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy. We believe that a healthy economy, environment and society are fundamental to long-term value creation. This is why we manage our business in accordance with the Triple Bottom Line business principle and consider the financial, environmental and social impact of our business decisions. The strategic commitment to corporate sustainability has brought the company onto centre stage as a leading player in today's business environment, recognised for its integrated reporting, stakeholder engagement and consistently high sustainability performance.

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