Novo Nordisk and BGI establish global collaboration framework

March 2, 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark and Shenzhen, China – Novo Nordisk, one of the world's leading companies in diabetes care and BGI, the world's largest genomics organization jointly announced that they have reached an agreement to establish a global collaboration framework, which provides an unprecedented collaborative opportunity for Novo Nordisk and BGI to accelerate their growth, execute their global partnering strategy and support disease research and development efforts. The agreement was signed by Professor Allan Ertmann Karlsen, Corporate and Scientific Vice President of Novo Nordisk and Dr. Ning Li, Director of BGI Europe.

Under the agreement, this collaboration will combine BGI's next generation sequencing platforms and bioinformatics capabilities with Novo Nordisk's expertise and experience in drug development under a global framework. This agreement is enforceable to Novo Nordisk's headquarter in Denmark, international production facilities in seven countries, and its affiliates or regional offices in 75 countries as well as BGI's headquarter in Shenzhen and affiliates worldwide, including BGI-Hong Kong, BGI-Europe, BGI-Americas, among others.

"We appreciate this great opportunity to bring our extensive genomics experience in the collaboration with Novo Nordisk." said Dr. Li, "With the recent opening of our first European Genome Centre in Denmark, we believe it will provide an excellent platform for us and our collaborators, and we are looking forward to establish more collaborations with more partners across Europe and worldwide. "

Provided by BGI Shenzhen