August and Marie Krogh’s journey to North America led to the development of world-class insulin and the subsequent Danish business and export venture. It also led to the establishment of several foundations that, many years later, merged into today’s Novo Nordisk Foundation, which has donated several billion Danish kroner to medical and biotechnology research and to social causes.
1920 21 22 22 23 August Krogh receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Frederick Banting, a young Canadian surgeon, assisted by Charles Best, a medical student, successfully extract active insulin from a dog’s pancreas at the University of Toronto.
August and Marie Krogh return from North America with permission to manufacture insulin in Scan dinavia.
August Krogh’s journey to Toronto led to the development of world-class insulin and the subsequent Danish business and export venture. It also led to the establishment of several foundations that, many years later, merged into today’s Novo Nordisk Foundation, which has donated several billion Danish kroner to medical and biotechnology research and to social causes. In December 1922, on returning to Copen hagen with permission to manufacture insulin based on the method developed and patented by Canadian researchers, August Krogh instinctively knew that he had a historic opportunity and responsibility to change the lives of thousands of incurably sick people with diabetes in Denmark and the other Nordic countries. In a commemorative publication from 1924, Krogh gave a comprehensive account of his role in securing the permission and his own journey to Canada:
53
NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION
August Krogh, Hans Christian Hagedorn and August Kongsted agree to form a “nonprofit institution”, Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium. The first Danish insulin is manufactured in the basement of Hagedorn’s house north of Copenhagen, Villa Rødsten.
“I was soon convinced that it would be invaluable to bring the benefits of insulin to Denmark ...” From the very beginning, the primary con siderations focused on the special scientific and societal responsibilities associated with producing life-saving medicine and how this could best be ensured in a foundation structure. To put it another way, science and public spirit were integral to the Group’s history and raison d’être and have been ever since. Today, this spirit is extremely important for the Group and its activities: contributing significantly to research and development that improves the health and welfare of people. Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium and the Nordisk Insulin Foundation were created as a result of an agreement to develop, manufacture and sell insulin that August Krogh and Hans Christian Hagedorn made with August Kongsted, the owner of Løve Apoteket
25 Harald and Thorvald Pedersen found Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium and start selling Insulin Novo and Novo syringes.
(pharmacy) and Løvens kemiske Fabrik (now LEO Pharma). From the start, the founders placed the company and its responsibilities in a foundation structure. Hagedorn, August Krogh and Kongsted comprised the formal Nordisk leadership in both the company and the foundation and, although all three were very diverse and charismatic men, they agreed on one thing: the profit from the sale of diabetes medicine would be used for scientific and humanitarian purposes. This was fully in accordance with the agreement that August Krogh made with the Insulin Committee of the University of Toronto. In 1924, an event took place with far-reaching consequences for the history of the Group. As a result of a disagreement, Hans Christian Hagedorn fired one of his most trusted employees, Thorvald Pedersen, a pharmacist and chemist. His brother, Harald Petersen, a highly valued employee working for August Krogh, resigned out of loyalty to Thorvald.