Novo Nordisk lashes out at government’s research cuts

The company’s head of research, Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, accused the ruling Liberals of ‘cutting off their nose to spite their face,’ reports Seven59.dk and tv2.dk.

“Denmark has one major locomotive left. And it isn’t North Sea oil,” he said.

“Our locomotive today is young, Danish talent, the key to creating growth and new jobs in this country. And that won’t happen by cutting the research budget by 8.5 per cent.”

Massive attack on research

He called it a ‘massive attack’ that could destroy the momentum built up over the past few years, making it more difficult for universities and other institutions to maintain the current level of research and for Novo to hire the 3,000 extra employees needed over the next decade.

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The criticism was dismissed by the Liberals’ business spokesman, Torsten Schack Petersen:

“The business sector is forever demanding public sector cutbacks but Novo now appears to be saying that rising public expenditure is more important that reducing taxes and duties. So my message to them is: ‘You can’t have ​your cake and ​eat it.”

Government: DK has nothing to be ashamed of

According to spokesman Torsten Schack Pedersen, the government is examining every corner of public spending to ensure the ‘robustness and credibility of the Danish economy’.

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“We can’t just spend money we don’t have,” he said. “We will still be one of only three OECD countries that has a public research budget exceeding 1% of GDP so we have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Read articles on Danish-language site TV2.dk here and here.

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