Investing in sustainable diabetes medicine

‘Metformin is neither hugely expensive nor overly complicated to produce. That is good news for the world, because in some ways the type 2 diabetes epidemic is worse than the coronavirus pandemic,’ says Alexander Karlsen, Chief Financial Officer at Vistin Pharma.

Worldwide, 500 million people have diabetes, and five million people die from the disease every year. Of these patients, 90 per cent have type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes develops when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, the body’s own blood sugar-lowering hormone. Genetics play a role, but obesity and physical inactivity can also cause the condition. Exercise and a healthier diet are the first steps in treating type 2 diabetes. If these do not produce good results, the patient is prescribed metformin-based medicines, which both lower blood sugar and increase the effectiveness of the insulin produced by the body.

‘Innovation Norway is not just a counterpart for us, but a partner,’ says Karlsen.

Vistin Pharma exports everything it produces, primarily to major pharmaceutical companies that use metformin in their own patented diabetes medicines. The company has one competitor in Europe, while the rest are based in Asia. Vistin has a small head office in Oslo and state-of-the-art, fully automated production facilities in Kragerø. This is no coincidence.

‘We know we cannot compete on wages here in Norway. With automated production and efficient processes, we are now competitive in the international market,’ says Karlsen.

Over the past couple of years, the company – working with us at Innovation Norway – has invested heavily in technology to make its production as sustainable as possible. This not only reduces its own footprint but also meets market requirements.

‘The pharmaceutical industry has much stricter carbon footprint requirements today than in the past. One of our major customers requires all its suppliers to reuse all water and be carbon neutral by 2030,’ says Karlsen.

In 2020, Vistin Pharma launched a project that has reduced emissions from its production facilities by 98 per cent. The reductions were achieved using new, groundbreaking technology. To carry out the project, the company received an environmental grant of NOK 3.5 million from Innovation Norway.

‘The support from Innovation Norway was essential in enabling us to get started,’ says Karlsen.

Vistin Pharma is also working on a major project to recycle the water used to cool the facility where metformin is produced. Currently, 15 per cent of Kragerø’s drinking water is used to cool the production facility.

‘It makes no sense to use so much drinking water and tie up so much capacity. That is why we are now working on a project to recycle 80 per cent of all the water we use,’ says Karlsen.

As this project is important to the local community and Kragerø municipality, we have also provided support. Karlsen is very pleased with our collaboration so far and describes us as a proactive partner in the two environmental projects the company has carried out.

The company has been sold out of metformin since 2020 and is now working to double production capacity at its Kragerø facility. The aim is to achieve an annual production capacity of 7,000 tonnes with a lower overall carbon footprint than today.

We are supporting the company and hope that, over time, the technology being developed will drive growth and increase its exports. We also hope that investments in new environmental technology will enable other companies to cut their emissions by the same amount.

‘We see Vistin Pharma as a strong and exciting company with a focus on innovation, environmental impact and increased exports,’ says Guri Bjønnes Hotvedt, Head of Department at our regional office for Vestfold and Telemark.