A multi-million pound donation from a Japanese drug firm has ensured that Oxford's new diabetes centre will be one of the world's leading research and treatment units for the disease.

Takeda, based in Osaka, has handed over £3.2m to the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM), which is being built at the Churchill Hospital in Headington.

The company is the second international company to give financial backing to the £12m research and treatment unit, the first phase of which is due to open in December.

Scientists, doctors, nurses, dieticians, and support staff will all be based at OCDEM, in a partnership between the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxford University.

The 26-bed unit will provide care for 15,000 patients every year, as well as world-class research. The money donated by Takeda will be used to provide an additional 1,000 square metres of space at the university's research facility, due to be completed in 2003 as phase two of the development.

OCDEM chairman Dr David Matthews said: "We are delighted that Takeda is joining us in this venture.

"This investment recognises the need for continued research in diabetes and clinical care.

"It is also an acknowledgement by another major global firm that our vision of integrated research, teaching and clinical care holds great promise for patients, carers and global businesses."

In recognition of the funding, Takeda will join OCDEM's partnership board together with pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk -- Europe's largest manufacturer of insulin -- which has ploughed £4m into the unit. Takeda's general manager of pharmaceutical research, Dr Yasuhiro Sumino said: "It is our great pleasure that Takeda will be a partner to create the world's leading integrated centre in all areas relating to diabetes.

"This investment emphasises our dedication to diabetes care and is surely consistent with our management policy -- that Takeda contributes to the health of individuals and to the progress of medicine."

OCDEM will replace the current diabetes unit at the Radcliffe Infirmary, in Woodstock Road, where there are six beds designated for diabetes patients.

The specially-designed building will combine basic research, patient care and the treatment of diabetes, a condition which prevents the body from producing insulin to break down sugary food. It is known to affect 1.4m people in the UK and scientists have warned that numbers are rising.

The announcement of the award coincides with National Diabetes Week.

Scientists at OCDEM will also study the body's metabolic and hormonal systems.