Around a half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services including essential medicines like insulin.[1,2] This is especially an issue in low- and middle income countries which also is home to eighty percent of people living with diabetes today.[2] However, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases continue to be under prioritised in development assistance for health (DAH).[3]

The Base of the Pyramid project targets the more than one billion people globally with low incomes, the working poor, who have difficulties accessing health services. These people have some disposable income and could contribute to financing their own treatment.

The purpose of the Base of the Pyramid project is to create shared value by developing scalable, sustainable and profitable solutions that increase access to diabetes care for the working poor living in low- and middle-income countries as well as provide value to the business of Novo Nordisk.

References

1 Tracking universal health coverage: 2017 global monitoring report. World Health Organization and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2017. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

2 International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas, 8th edn. Brussels, Belgium: International Diabetes Federation, 2017.

3 IHME. Financing Global Health 2015: Development assistance steady on the path to new Global Goals. Seattle, WA: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). 2016.