How Do We Innovate Diabetes Care in Africa’s Biggest Country?

Like many other countries in the region, Algeria is facing the growing health challenge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In fact, more than three-quarters of deaths in Algeria today are related to NCDs, including diabetes.

1.7 million people live with diabetes in Algeria

The good news is that the majority of the people who are diagnosed receive care in Algeria. However, only few of those achieve recommended treatment targets which are leading to complications that significantly reduce the life quality and are costly both to the individual as well as to society.

As much as 11% of total health spending in Algeria is devoted to diabetes. The cost is expected to grow twice as fast as the population from 2010 to 2030, which is not sustainable in a country where as many as 90% of Algerians are covered by national health insurance schemes.

This month, Novo Nordisk published a case study on Algeria, which is part of a programme called `The Blueprint for Change´, a series of in-depth impact studies that investigate how Novo Nordisk creates value through our Triple Bottom Line business principle. The case tells the full story of our business activities in Algeria which includes how we work with partners to help people with diabetes live healthier lives through Changing Diabetes initiatives while investing in local clinical research and production.

But the publication does not only look back in time, it also looks to the future. It provides solid evidence for why investing in better diabetes care can support patient outcomes and save the Algerian society millions of euros. For example, by reducing eye complications as well as kidney and heart failures, 439 million euros can be saved.

I’m really glad to see we have been able to develop this blueprint and I hope that the case will inspire to take further action and fight diabetes – also beyond Algeria.

The Algeria publication marks the 10th case of the Blueprint for Change programme, a series of impact studies that investigate how Novo Nordisk creates value through our Triple Bottom Line business principle. If you want to know more about the programme i encourage you to take a look herehttp://www.novonordisk.com/blueprint.

Follow Maziar Mike Doustdar on linkedIn