DENMARK – Danish pensions administrator PKA has invested DKK115m (€15.4m) in fertility treatment company Unisense FertiliTech.

The Århus-based business, which specialises in artificial insemination, is expected to produce good financial returns, PKA said.

Michael Nellemann Pedersen, investment director at PKA, said: "The company has created a unique product for which there is an increasing demand, not least due to the higher birth age of first-time mothers in many Western countries."

The company's advanced measurement technology was shown in a study last year to increase the success rate by 20%, PKA said.

Nellemann Pedersen said FertiliTech was undergoing rapid development, and was an exciting investment.

Lillian Bondo, president of the Midwives' Association and vice-chairman of the Healthcare Professionals' Pension Fund, said: "It is a company that is growing, and it is therefore expected to provide a good return for our members' pensions."

Apart from this, it was satisfying to be able to contribute to the development of technologies to alleviate infertility, she said.

The Healthcare Professionals' Pension Fund is one of five pension funds administered by PKA.

Unisense FertiliTech is represented in more than 30 countries and has achieved a turnover of DKK75m in only two years, PKA said.

PKA bought shares in the company from Danish pension fund Lønmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond (LD) and Unisense Holding.

Other shareholders include William Demant, which also supplies the company with know-how.

In other news, doctors' pension fund Lægernes Pensionskasse said it was engaging with a medical firm it invests in over concerns that one of its products is being used in US executions.

Danish newspaper Berlingske on Monday ran an article on the subject under the headline "Danish doctors invest in medicine for American executions".

The background to the article is that one of the drugs produced by medical company Hospira – which Lægernes Pensionskasse invests in – is used by some US prisons in executions, the pension fund said.

The product is a muscle relaxant widely used in hospitals.

The prisons' use of the drug is not legal, it said, adding that Hospira had asked the US authorities to stop prison abuse of the product.

"In line with the institution's policy on socially responsible investment, we took up contact with Hospira this February, and are now awaiting an explanation of what actions they are taking to alter distribution in order to prevent abuse of the drug," the pension fund said.

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