Diabetes centre “a possibility” but will take time

Health minister Sirið Stenberg is open to the idea of collaborating with the Novo Nordisk Foundation on opening a large diabetes centre in the Faroes.

It caused a stir last year when the health ministry appeared to have turned down an offer from the Danish pharmaceutical company’s proposal to set up a diabetes centre in the Faroes.

A key reason for the health ministry’s hesitation to collaborate on the project was that it did not seem right to let a private foundation control such a significant part of the Faroese health system.

Many questions have been answered

Last week, Stenberg and a delegation of MPs and representatives form the Faroese health authorities visited Novo Nordisk in Denmark to discuss the plan.

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The minister says that many of the disputed points regarding a possible collaboration have now been clarified, and there is a possibility that the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s activities in the Faroes could work in parallel with the Faroese health system rather than as an integral part of it.

“It takes the best part of a year to specify the details of an agreement, and then the matter needs to be debated in Parliament,” said the minister.

“We have now received a lot more clarity on the plan, and we are definitely interested in continuing our talks. But it will be a lengthy process.”

Translated by prosa.fo