CRAWLEY, England — Novo Nordisk has received a 2010 Good Design Award for its NovoPen Echo insulin pen, designed primarily for the needs of children.
The company said Wednesday that the Good Design Awards are given based on product designs that are new, visionary and innovative and may enrich people’s lives. The awards are chosen annually by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in cooperation with The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies.
NovoPen Echo allows patients to inject insulin doses as low as 0.5 units, which is beneficial in children with low insulin requirements who require very small doses. A simple memory function also has been added to record the dose and the time since the last injection.
More than 400,000 children worldwide are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes worldwide, and the device they use for daily injections becomes an integral part of their everyday life, Novo Nordisk noted.
"We spoke to children and their parents to establish what features of current pens could be improved," stated Ramin Elahi, chief designer at Novo Nordisk. " We identified the need to develop a pen which combined small dosing capability, a simple memory function and a design made to fit children’s smaller hands. NovoPen Echo is the result and is currently the only pen which combines all of these functionalities in one device."
In addition, NovoPen Echo’s look also makes it more appealing to children. It comes in two colors, red and blue, and has removable skins so that users can personalize their pens.
"The pen is easy for children to use and the memory function will be very important," commented Dr. Birthe Olsen, chief physician at the Department of Paediatrics at Glostrup Hospital. "Parents will get reassurance that their child has taken their insulin at school, elping to give them independence at a younger age."
