Actor Chris Noth, perhaps best known for roles in television shows Sex and the City and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, has been named Novo Nordisk’s latest spokesperson for the pharma’s consumer diabetes campaign, Ask.Screen.Know. The campaign, which launched nationally more than three years ago, works to educate Americans 45 years and older on their risk for diabetes – and more specifically, type 2 diabetes – by increasing awareness of the disease, and endorsing the benefits of early diabetes screening and detection.

“My friend had some of the risk factors for diabetes,” says Noth in a compassionate note to visitors via the campaign’s website. “He wasn’t physically active and was overweight. It took all of us getting on his case to get him to the doctor and eventually get screened for diabetes. Getting diagnosed with type 2 diabetes was a huge wake-up call for him and gave him the motivation to start making positive changes to improve his health. Now, he’s a completely different person – both physically and mentally.”

The Novo Nordisk-sponsored site works to shed light on the epidemic of diabetes in a variety of ways, providing harrowing statistical information, such as how “nearly one in 12 Americans has diabetes, but nearly one in three doesn’t know it.” The site’s easy navigation includes tabs that allow consumers to take surveys related to their health issues and find out basic information, as well as understand the signs and symptoms of the disease. Digital tools and resources are also bestowed to the patients and caregivers of the disease, in addition to the HCPs who work to treat the condition.   

On the run of the program and the company’s plans for continued outreach, Novo Nordisk director of corporate branding, Susan Jackson, tells MM&M, “Our government affairs team works closely with the American Diabetes Association and other key stakeholders on this critical public health issue in tandem with our public awareness efforts… Besides the website, we are launching a public service campaign in 2011, which will include television, radio and print components in the coming weeks.”