Case Study: Novo Nordisk achieves faster, more consistent clinical trial setup with Neo4j

Novo Nordisk Leveraging the Graph for Clinical Trials and Standards

Novo Nordisk, a global pharmaceutical company, faced a slow and error-prone process for setting up and documenting clinical trials across languages, units, and standards. Its manual, disconnected workflow relied on hundreds of tables and extensive Word-document-based specifications, making it difficult to maintain consistency and compliance. Novo Nordisk turned to Neo4j Enterprise to build its StudyBuilder application and knowledge graph for managing clinical trial information.

Using Neo4j, Novo Nordisk implemented a centralized graph-based hub that reuses content, enforces controlled terminology, and improves end-to-end consistency and automation across trial setup and submission. The graph was designed to navigate complex standards such as CDISC, SNOMED, and UCUM, supporting a foundation for future digitalization. The current system already spans more than 1 million nodes and 2 million+ relationships, with Neo4j enabling a future master data foundation for all clinical studies and an open-source path for broader industry use.

Novo Nordisk

Henrik Enquist

Advanced IT Developer