Novo Nordisk wins 2010 Good Design Award for NovoPen Echo

CRAWLEY, England — An insulin pen for children made by Novo Nordisk has won a design award, the company said Wednesday.

The Danish drug maker won the 2010 Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies for its NovoPen Echo, used to treat Type 1 diabetes. The annual award, which the two organizations have given since 1950, are the oldest and among the most coveted for design and innovation, Novo Nordisk said.

The pen allows patients to inject insulin doses as low as 0.5 units, providing dosages sufficient for children with low insulin requirements. It also includes a memory function that records the dose and time since the last injection.

“We spoke to children and their parents to establish what features of current pens could be improved,” Novo Nordisk chief designer Ramin Elahi said. “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.”