On an international corporate level, Novo Nordisk has established research and development collaborations with a number of leading-edge biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the United States. These ongoing initiatives comprise of a wide variety of scientific disciplines, and all are designed to combat disease with novel therapies. Most recently, Novo Nordisk has entered into a licensing agreement with Neose Technologies, Inc. to develop several next-generation proteins within our therapeutic areas, and with Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. on pharmacogenomic technology to help predict the efficacy and safety of compounds being developed for type 2 diabetes to streamline drug development.
Moreover, Novo Nordisk maintains a significant stake in ZymoGenetics Inc., a United States discovery company that became independent several years ago after being owned by Novo Nordisk. Because of its substantial expertise in protein discovery - which is needed for successfully mining DNA sequence databases and developing new therapeutic proteins - ZymoGenetics has obtained a number of proprietary rights in genomics and bioinformatics for new protein-based drugs.
