The Danish Embassy in Oslo Invited to a Brain Health Evening

It was the pharmaceutical company Lundbeck that, together with the embassy, invited to a professional evening on brain health and clinical research.

"Patients are the focus of everything we do, and for us to succeed in meeting patients' needs, strong public and private collaboration is important. A meeting place like the one we have at the ambassador's tonight is important. Here we put public-private cooperation on the agenda, exchange experiences, and establish contacts between the different environments both in Norway and across national borders," says Ronny Johansen, general manager of Lundbeck in Norway.

Denmark's ambassador to Norway, Louise Bang Jespersen, guided the audience through a content-rich agenda with presentations from the Brain Council, LMI, NorTrials Brain Health, Trial Nation Denmark, Lundbeck, and the Neurology Department at OUS.

The professional program concluded with a panel discussion on the benefits of private-public collaboration, user involvement, better information about clinical trials, and Danish-Norwegian cooperation.

Denmark recently launched its updated Life Science Strategy with 31 action points, where the ambition is for Denmark to be a leading country when it comes to innovative life science solutions and world-class patient treatment. The day the strategy was launched, LMI director Leif Rune Skymoen told Medwatch that the Danish government shows how important the pharmaceutical industry is to the Danish economy after they rolled out the "red carpet" for the industry."

In addition to the broad support from four ministries, Denmark has also come further than Norway in its approach to public-private cooperation as a contribution to innovation in the health service," said Ina Dahlsveen from LMI at the meeting.

In return, Norway has a roadmap for the health industry, an export strategy that includes the health industry, an action plan for clinical studies, which is now being updated, and a brain health strategy, which will be sent for consultation in an updated version during November.

Henrik Peersen, Secretary General of the Brain Council, said that they look forward to a new brain health strategy that hopefully is more specific to brain health, and which hopefully closes the gaps between other existing plans and strategies.

Although Norway traditionally lags slightly behind Denmark when it comes to attracting clinical trials from the international health industry, Denmark also has something to learn from Norway, according to Marianne Pilgaard, CEO of Trial Nation. She is very pleased with the Life Science strategy, and the fact that it includes as many as four ministries, but is also express concert that that the plan is limited to Denmark and does not have a broader collaboration with the other t Nordic countries. Because together, the Nordic countries have a much larger patient base, and thus a greater chance of attracting clinical trials. Mutually, Nordic countries face many of the same challenges when it comes to having an easily accessible real-time overview of clinical trials that both patients, caretakers, and clinicians can find.

Kjell Morten Myhr, head of NorTrials Brain Health collaboration, highlights the need for a better overview.

"People don't go around thinking 'I'm going to participate in a clinical trial' until the disease actually strikes or a relative becomes ill. And the average nurse and doctor also think too little about it, so when they are met at the outpatient clinic or ward by patients asking 'is there a clinical trials for me?’ they have no idea where to find this information."

Ina Dahlsveen at LMI reminded that the regional health authorities have been delegated the task to develop a real-time overview of ongoing clinical trials.

"It's extremely important to create a solution that is easy to find for both healthcare professionals and patients. A specification from the working group is to be delivered at the end of the year, as far as we know, so we hope there will be progress in this area very soon," said Dahlsveen.

Mathias Toft, head of the Neurology Department at Oslo University Hospital, talked about the newly established Section for Clinical Trials (Neurology Clinic), which aims to attract as many clinical trials as possible. They have experienced and qualified study nurses and research coordinators, and have a network for study personnel internally in the Neurology Clinic,” said Toft.