29 Organizations to Collaborate in the Fight Against Obesity

Twenty-nine international organizations will join forces with European Union support to improve treatment for obesity, which affects 650 million people globally. Novo Nordisk has taken the lead in SOPHIA, an international research consortium based on public-private partnership (Stratification of Obese Phenotypes to Optimize Future Obesity Therapy) A global epidemic affecting 150 million people in Europe, 20 million in Turkey and 650 million worldwide, obesity has prompted public and private sector collaboration. Twenty-nine leading international organizations from civil society, academia and industry have joined forces through the EU-backed SOPHIA Project to better understand obesity and optimize future treatment. Novo Nordisk has taken the lead in SOPHIA, or Stratification of Obese Phenotypes to Optimize Future Obesity Therapy. The European Commission, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA); JDRF; Obesity Action Coalition and T1D Exchange joint initiative Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has provided EUR 16 million in funding to SOPHIA. Work under the project began in June across Europe. The project, which will run until 31 May 2025, is planned to yield initial milestone results in September 2020. SOPHIA Coordinator and obesity physician at the University of Dublin Diabetes Complications Research Centre Prof. Carel le Roux said: "With SOPHIA, our goal is to enable healthcare professionals to reliably predict obesity complications and who will respond to treatment."

SOPHIA Project Lead Dr. Marianne Ølholm Larsen Grønning from Novo Nordisk stated: "Obesity is a complex and chronic disease. There is much we still do not know about both the biology of the disease and how treatment can improve the lives of patients with obesity. SOPHIA represents an important step towards better understanding obesity. The collaboration of excellent participants from academia, industry and associations gives us hope that we will achieve strong and unique results."

Novo Nordisk Turkey Vice President and General Manager Dr. Burak Cem noted that obesity is a complex disease requiring multidisciplinary treatment, saying: "International collaboration in developing and better understanding obesity treatments is a crucial step in the fight against obesity." Recalling that Novo Nordisk, which is leading the project, is a foundation company, Dr. Burak Cem made the following assessment: "The Novo Nordisk Foundation, our largest shareholder, is the world's largest foundation. Being a foundation company provides a stable foundation for the firm's operations while supporting humanitarian and scientific endeavors. Our global research and development spending reaches 14% of our budget annually. We work with all our strength to develop the most effective treatments for patients and make them widely accessible through strong partnerships with institutions, civil society organizations and associations worldwide. We are proud to take the lead in SOPHIA, which aims to better understand obesity and optimize treatment in the future. We also believe this project will make important contributions to our work in Turkey." DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE OBESITY TREATMENTS ENVISIONED While complications from obesity are common, it is still not possible to predict in whom approximately 200 complications caused by obesity will develop. Moreover, our knowledge about who will respond to obesity treatments remains insufficient. SOPHIA will identify, qualify and classify clinically significant subpopulations living with obesity to match the right treatment with the right person at the right time. It will provide evidence-based classification of indicators for obesity complications and responses to obesity treatment. It will also identify models for sustainable development of treatment methods that will be valuable to patients, health systems, researchers and clinicians. A SOPHIA Patient Advisory Board has been established to focus on the voices of individuals with obesity. This board will ensure that patient feedback, views and needs are central to SOPHIA and embedded in various layers of the work. The research team will use its findings to contribute to a more patient-centered and equitable process within the framework of obesity and its multiple impacts on individuals from both social and medical perspectives. At the starting point of the process is the understanding that obesity is not a personal choice but a chronic disease. SOPHIA will also investigate health outcomes in individuals with obesity who have type 1 diabetes. JDRF Vice President for Research Dr. Sanjoy Dutta made the following statement on this: "With the statistical capabilities provided by such a large European coalition, we will be able to investigate the reciprocal relationship between obesity and type 1 diabetes and ultimately make valid predictions about health outcomes in this population that has traditionally received insufficient attention. As recent epidemiological data shows that in some European countries nearly half of adults living with T1D are overweight or obese, addressing this issue in the T1D community is of critical importance."

Some of the methods to be used in SOPHIA are as follows:

• Database creation
• Conducting analyses
• Determining perceptions and perspectives of patients regarding obesity diagnosis and treatment through in-depth qualitative methods
• Finding common values with all stakeholders to ensure individuals living with obesity receive better treatment