Novo Nordisk decided not to sell its 'chemical library' and will instead pass it on to the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and the World health Organisation.

The library contains over 325,000 of the company's chemical substances created and collected through years of research. Many of the potential medicines in the reserve are substances that were aimed at diabetes treatment, but Novo Nordisk is no longer developing chemically-based diabetes drugs.

Through the donation, the Shanghai institute will gain ownership of the library, while the WHO will have access to most of the substances.

Peter Kurtzhals, head of Novo Nordisk's diabetes research department, said the benefits of donating the library instead of selling it were twofold.

"We get a fantastic opportunity to support WHO, which can possibly find new medicines to treat tropical diseases," he said. "On the other hand, we strengthen our research relations with China."

For Novo Nordisk, those 'research relations' mean securing an entrance into the Chinese market, which would result in billions from future pharmaceutical sales.

Kurtzhals said that the WHO has a good chance to develop a substance from the chemicals available in the library that would a positive effect on some diseases. He added, however, that the chance of the organisation developing a marketable drug from those chemicals is unlikely.