Obesity is a serious, progressive, and chronic disease with far-reaching consequences – it is associated with >200 complications, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.1 Nearly 1 billion people worldwide live with obesity – that’s 1 in 7 people. That number is predicted to rise to nearly 1.9 billion by 2035.2
Preventing, detecting and managing obesity could be seen as the single most important way to reduce premature deaths due to cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, the main causes of death worldwide.3
As leaders within the science of obesity, Novo Nordisk established the Transformational Prevention Unit (TPU) to tackle one of the world’s foremost health challenges and drive change within obesity prevention.
These solutions intend to push the boundaries of what is possible with medicines, genomics, microbiome, digital health, and behavioral science.
By leveraging our deep knowledge of the science of obesity, the TPU will identify people at high-risk for developing obesity and its consequences and aim to deliver targeted interventions to stop them from developing obesity in the first place. This has the potential to reduce the number of new cases of obesity amongst people at high-risk and prolong the duration of time people live without obesity.
+ Risk & Response Assessment
+ Engagement & Monitoring
+ Behavioural Interventon
+ Biological Intervention
The TPU is a pioneering scientific and business unit within Novo Nordisk that has been created with high autonomy to push boundaries and encourage agility and speed. It spans across the Research & Early Development (R&ED) and Commercial Strategy & Corporate Affairs (CSCA) organizations and is guided by an internal board.
The TPU is comprised of a global team of interdisciplinary experts ranging from drug R&D, human biology, data science, behavioural psychology, public health, digital technologies, marketing, and communications.
Yuen, M., Earle, R., Kadambi, N., Brancale, J., Lui, D., Kahan, S. and Kaplan, L. (2016). A systematic review and evaluation of current evidence reveals 236 obesity-associated disorders [Poster T-P-3166]. Obesity Week 2016, Oct 31–Nov 4 2016, New Orleans.
World Obesity Federation, World Obesity Atlas 2024. Available at: https://data.worldobesity.org/publications/?cat=22