Continued Government Support for NorTrials
- We have secured further funding for NorTrials, said Minister of Health and Care Services Ingvild Kjerkol when she, together with Minister of Trade and Industry, Jan Christian Vestre, presented the new Norwegian export strategy.
In Oslo Science Park on Friday morning, with around 100 listeners present and many following digitally, the government presented its export strategy for the healthcare industry.
The measures are summarized in 15 points that will contribute to doubling the export income for the healthcare industry by 2030.
Point 9 states:
Further develop NorTrials - a partnership between healthcare service and healthcare industry.
The Minister of Health and Care Services elaborated:
- The government has an ambition for clinical research to become a fully integrated part of all patient treatment and clinical practice. We follow up the national action plan on clinical trials, where collaboration between the public healthcare services and pharmaceutical and medical device industry is one of the nine focus areas. Our primary initiative in this area is NorTrials - a mutually binding partnership for clinical trials. We have therefore secured further funding for NorTrials. NorTrials offers one way in to pharmaceutical and medical device companies who wishes to carry out clinical trials in Norway. The six NorTrials centres, each within their defined therapy area, were selected in collaboration with the industry, and each centre receives financial support for a five-year period. Through NorTrials, funds are set aside to market Norway as a preferred country for clinical trials. You can come here to test out new drugs, products and methods, and we will be involved and do our best to contribute. We want further development of the partnership as a collaboration between NorTrials, the healthcare services, Innovation Norway, the TTOs and the industry, said Kjerkol.
Signe Øien Fretland, head of NorTrials coordinating unit, is very happy about the news from the Minister of Health and Care Services.
- It is encouraging that the work on promoting Norway towards the international health industry as an excellent country for clinical trials can continue - now with considerable experience and even more effort than before, says Fretland.
Terje Rootwelt, CEO if South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority and chairman of NorTrials, is also satisfied with the decision.
- We see that it is challenging to achieve the ambitions to increase the number of patients in clinical trials. It is therefore vital to continue this investment, says Rootwelt.
Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre is clear about why the government wants to focus on the healthcare industry as one of several industries that will contribute to Norway’s export in the years ahead.
- We have fantastic and innovative companies within the healthcare industry. We have great opportunities to take an even more prominent position within the growing global market. With the government's targeted investment, we will make it possible for Norwegian companies to increase their exports. This will in turn increase the number of profitable jobs in this important industry, says Vestre.
The goals for the health initiative are ambitious and come from the business itself. The ambition is to increase export revenues from NOK 22 billion in 2021 to NOK 50 billion in 2030, writes the Ministry of Business and Industry in a press release.