The project will involve 20 million yuan (2.4 million US dollars) to establish a diabetes prevention and treatment system in 311 Chinese cities within five years.

Chinese vice-minister of health Huang Jiefu and Danish ambassador to China H. E. Ole Loensmann Poulsen attended the signing ceremony.

Thorkil K. Christensen, president of Novo Nordisk China, said the focus of the project is to spread knowledge about diabetes among medical staff and patients and to enhance prevention of the disease.

China has over 40 million diabetes patients, ranking the secondin the world, said Huang. The incidence rate has been on the rise,from 0.67 percent in the early 1980s to 3.21 percent in the mid-1990s among people between the ages of 15 to 74.

Xu Zhangrong, deputy director of the Beijing Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Association, said diabetes normally causes other problems such as heart, kidney and eye diseases. It is urgent to adopt a scientific way to fight the disease.

Ji Linong, an expert on diabetes with People's Hospital affiliated with Beijing University, said diabetes treatment needs improvement in China. The project will help standardize the prevention and treatment of the chronic disease.

According the agreement, the Ministry of Health and Novo Nordisk will make guidelines to improve diabetes prevention and treatment in China, which will be based in hospitals and social communities.

Novo Nordisk, a pioneer in the field of diabetes prevention, has a history of nearly 80 years in insulin production. Insulin produced by the company first entered China in 1962. The company has so far established branches in 70 countries and regions.

(People's Daily December 19, 2002)