[Early achievements of the Danish pharmaceutical industry--1 Novo Nordisk].

The article series provides an account in words and pictures of the Danish pharmaceutical industry's products from the earliest times until about 1950. Part 1 deals with products from Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium, founded in 1923, and Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium, founded in 1925. The two companies were competitors for many years and became two of the world's leading insulin producers. In 1989 they joined forces, merging to become Novo Nordisk A/S, today one of the world's leading biotech companies. The article chronicles the earliest decades of development and progress in insulin production, illustrated with photos of several types of consumer packaging. In 1923 Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium marketed Insulin "Leo" tablets, from which patients had to make their own sterile solution for injection two to three times a day, because the solution was unstable. Ready-to-use solutions gradually came on the market, and formulations with prolonged duration, so-called protamin-insulins, were developed in the 1930s. Insulin "Leo" Retard was marketed in 1936, and its basic properties were maintained and further developed in step with research breakthroughs well into the 1980s. Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium's first insulin was Insulin Novo in 1925, and at the same time one of the company founders developed Novo-sprøjten (the Novo Syringe) for individual dosage from a special ampoule. The syringe was further developed over the years and was the prototype for the NovoPen launched in 1985 as well as for later advanced dosage systems. Starting in 1938 Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium marketed Zink-Protamin-Insulin Novo and products based on other insulin derivatives in the 1940s. The era concludes with Insulin Novo Lente from 1952 as well as suspensions of amorphous and crystalline zinc-insulin. Ever since, insulin treatments for diabetes have been the focus of intensive development throughout the global marketplace and continue to be so.