NL nr 3-2019_300 dpi

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INSPIRING LIFE SCIENCE BUSINESS & INNOVATION NO 03 2019 

Q&A 

COLUMN 

CELLINK Developing the 

world’s first bioink company 

PCI BIOTECH On the cusp of 

a revolution in cancer treatments 

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108 

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LIFE SCIENCE 

EDITOR IN CHIEF: MALIN OTMANI 

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PARTNERS: 

ARE TWO HEADS, or brains, better than one? Well, perhaps not always but diversity has 

been shown to fire imagination and stimulate people to come up with new ideas, 

while studies have shown that if the collaborators communicate, are competent and 

confident they perform better and make more sensible decisions (Bahrami et al., 

Science, 2010). Even the lone genius Albert Einstein supposedly collaborated with 

his fellow students. 

Within life science we also have a lot of successful historic examples, duos like 

Watson & Crick and Charpentier & Doudna, and let’s not forget one of the world’s 

largest collaborative biological projects, the Human Genome Project. Not convinced 

yet? Take a look at the last slide of every Nobel Laureate’s Nobel lecture – the list of 

colleagues they want to acknowledge is usually very long. 

REGARDLESS IF A discovery is made by a single person, the importance of a collaborative 

environment should not be underestimated. We need environments that encourage 

researchers to build cross-border and interdisciplinary teams and attack problems 

that no person alone, or no country or discipline alone, can solve. 

An atmosphere where you share the larger goals could also encourage a young 

scientist to continue follow his or her calling. Recurrent advice from the young 

talented researchers we spoke to in this issue was the importance of networking; 

talking to others in order to open up your perspectives, beeing a team player and 

discussing your findings. 

THIS DOESN’T just apply to the scientific community. In order to build successful businesses, 

collaboration is also the key. According to our profile in this issue, venture 

capital specialist Eugen Steiner, “you need both the geniuses who invent stuff and 

very smart people who can turn the discovery into products, as well as the business 

developers who create the network, and the investors.” So, more than one brain. 

In our interviews with up-and-coming Nordic life science companies they also all 

agree; building a good team around your technology is key and you can’t do everything 

yourself! 

So, if two heads are better than one when building a business I think it is also true 

that two hearts are better than one. If you share a common passion you are more 

likely to succeed and it won’t take long until the due date for your baby, ... I mean 

your company. 

MALIN OTMANI 

EDITOR IN CHIEF 

FOR DAILY UPDATES OF THE NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 

INDUSTRY, VISIT: NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG.

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PHOTO THOMAS RØNN 

ACQUISITION 

AMGEN HAS AGREED TO BUY THE BIOPHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY 

NUEVOLUTION TO BOOST ITS POSITION IN DRUG DISCOVERY. 

HE OFFER FROM Amgen follows a 

collaboration between Nuevolution 

and Amgen which started 

in October 2016. Amgen had 

exercised opt-in rights for two 

cancer treatment approaches that 

have emerged from the alliance. 

“Going forward, and provided that the transaction 

goes through, Amgen wishes to keep 

Nuevolution in its strongest setup, and Nuevolution 

will play a key role together with our many 

coming colleagues at Amgen. We will join efforts 

in discovery of small molecule-based (tablet) 

medicines, where Nuevolution will continue 

its operations from Copenhagen, where about 

50 people from about 10 countries are working 

today,” says Alex Haahr Gouliaev, CEO of 

Nuevolution. “Personally, I am excited about this 

opportunity, and I think that we should collectively 

be proud about this. It is the result of many 

people’s effort and professional and private 

investors’ support over many years.” 

Alex Haahr Gouliaev, 

CEO, Nuevolution

TEXT 

b y M A L I N O T M A N I 

SARA MANGSBO 

IS ENTREPRENEUR 

OF THE YEAR 

PHOTO KENNET RUONA 

IDOGEN HAS ESTABLISHED A NEW 

METHOD FOR ITS CELL THERAPY 

THE COMPANY HAS ESTABLISHED A NOVEL METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF THEIR 

TOLEROGENIC CELL THERAPY. 

DOGEN ANNOUNCED IN 

January 2019 that analyses 

performed in a scientifically 

improved evaluation 

model showed that 

the company’s technology so 

far, based on zebularine as a 

tolerance inducer, did not give 

the effect that earlier preclinical 

experiments had indicated. An 

evaluation of a number of alternative 

tolerance inducers was 

initiated in order to identify a 

more effective method to generate 

dendritic cells that educate 

the body to tolerate drugs, 

endogenous molecules and 

cells. It has led to the establishment 

of a new method for the 

development of the company’s 

cell therapy projects in the areas 

of hemophilia (IDO 8), kidney 

transplant (IDO T) and autoimmune 

diseases (IDO AID). 

The new method is based on 

a selected combination of tolerance-inducing 

substances that 

will replace zebularine. The next 

sub target is to initiate a clinical 

study of IDO 8 in hemophilia patients 

who have developed immunity 

against their treatment. 

Idogen has also started work on 

compiling patent applications 

for the new method. 

“The last few months have 

been a test of strength for the 

company’s employees and with 

the promising results achieved 

we can now look back on 

our efforts with pride,” says 

Idogen’s previous CEO, Lars 

Hedbys. During the summer 

it was announced that Lars 

Hedbys has resigned as CEO, 

after five years in the position. 

Anders Karlsson took over the 

role on August 19th. 

RESEARCHER AND ENTREPRE- 

NEUR SARA MANGSBO HAS 

WON THE FIRST PRIZE IN THIS 

YEAR’S SWEDISH MAGAZINE 

VECKANS AFFÄRER SUPER 

TALENT COMPETITION. 

ARA MANGSBO WORKS 

both in academia 

and business. She is 

an Associate Senior 

Lecturer at Uppsala 

University and Chief Development 

Officer at Ultimovacs, a 

Nordic cancer vaccine company. 

Almost a year ago, the company 

bought a subsidiary of Immuneed 

AB, an immunotherapy company 

that Mangsbo had co-founded. 

“It was extremely interesting 

and exciting to be involved in an 

acquisition. I learned a lot from that 

experience. I enjoy working at full 

speed and with lot of things going 

on. As an entrepreneur you have 

the opportunity to influence and 

discover new treatments for cancer 

patients. You also have the opportunity 

to help create new jobs, work for 

diversity and inspire others to forge 

their own path,” says Mangsbo. 

“Sara is so worthy of this prize 

and it’s a testament to her entrepreneurship. 

Her background and expert 

research skills are in high demand. 

Sara’s work is not only important 

for the work at Ultimovacs, but her 

expertise is also needed in the growing 

field of cancer research,” says 

Gunilla Ekström, Managing Director 

at Ultimovacs. 

THE NORWEGIAN BIOINFORMATICS COMPANY WILL NOW BECOME A SUBSIDIARY OF NEC AND 

OPERATE UNDER THE NAME OF NEC ONCOIMMUNITY AS. 

Sara Mangsbo, 

CDO, Ultimovacs 

ONCOIMMUNITY, FOUNDED IN 2014, is dedicated to 

the development of software solutions that facilitate 

the effective selection of patients for cancer 

immunotherapy, and identify optimal neoantigen 

targets for personalized cancer vaccines and cell 

therapies in a clinically actionable time frame. 

NEC announced its business strategy surrounding 

its AI-driven drug discovery business in May 

2019. This acquisition is integral for enhancing 

the resources and capabilities that support the 

development of its individualized immunotherapy 

pipelines, it states. NEC will maintain its focus 

on drug discovery, while NEC OncoImmunity AS 

continues its neoantigen prediction services. 

“These synergies will positioning NEC Onco- 

Immunity as the leading neoantigen prediction 

service provider in the field,” says Richard Stratford, 

CEO and co-founder of OncoImmunity. 

PHOTO MARTINA SJAUNJA 

NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 9

TOP STORIES BUSINESS 

BUSINESS 

ADDLIFE 

ACQUIRES 

2 DANISH 

COMPANIES 

Peter Simonsbacka, Business Area 

Manager Labtech, AddLife 

ADDLIFE HAS SIGNED 

AN AGREEMENT FOR 

THE ACQUISITION OF 

ALL SHARES IN THE 

DANISH COMPANIES 

LAB-VENT CONTROLS 

AND KOLDT & RYØ EL. 

NEW MARKET 

Rajan Chaudhary and Ingvild 

Soenstegaard Chaudhary 

THE COMPANIES ARE leaders 

on the Danish market in 

ventilation solutions for 

laboratories and cleanrooms. 

They will be a 

complement to AddLife´s 

operations in the company 

Holm & Halby, a 

laboratory equipment 

provider specialist in 

cleanrooms on the Danish 

market, states AddLife. 

The companies typical 

end customers include the 

pharmaceutical industry 

and academic research 

institutions. 

“The acquisitions 

means that we more 

clearly establish AddLife 

as a complete supplier 

of advanced solutions in 

cleanroom technology 

in the Danish market,” 

says Peter Simonsbacka, 

Business Area Manager 

Labtech, AddLife. 

The company currently 

has 20 employees and 

sales of DKK 36 million, 

on the Danish market. The 

deal was closed on 15 

August 2019. 

THE INDIAN CONSULTING COMPANY HAS OPENED AN OFFICE IN MEDICON 

VILLAGE, THE LIFE SCIENCE RESEARCH PARK IN LUND. 

HE COMPANY AIM is to help Scandinavian 

healthcare and medtech 

companies enter the Indian market 

and to support Indian companies 

that seek collaborative partners in 

Scandinavia. It intends to have five 

employees at their Swedish affiliate within the next 

1-2 years, as a compliment to their office with 22 

employees in India. One of their clients is Glycorex 

Transplantation, of which Wayinia is a main distribution 

partner for Indian hospitals. 

The team behind Wayinia, Ingvild Soenstegaard 

Chaudhary and Rajan Chaudhary, formerly country manager 

of Gambro in India, see potential in using their 

expertise from the life science industry and knowledge 

of business relations between India and Scandinavia. 

”In my opinion, Nordic companies should 

enter the Indian market because India and South 

East Asia (SEA) offer the power of scaling the 

business, which many countries in Europe doesn’t. 

India has today a population of over 1.4 million, 

and as we know, by 2050, over half of the world’s 

population will be concentrated in nine countries, 

out of which three are in SEA,” says Chaudhary. 

“Today India has 12 million people coming to 

the workforce every year, it has an average age of 

29 years and has had an economic growth of seven 

percent plus for many years. India is the right 

choice for investors and companies to start thinking 

toward SEA, since it has untapped potential and it 

is the single biggest economic growth driver the 

world has ever seen.” 

ayinia reached out to Invest 

in Skåne and Copenhagen 

Capacity in 2018 requesting 

assistance in establishing 

their company in Greater 

Copenhagen. They arranged 

a visiting program that included meetings with 

relevant stakeholders and potential customers, as 

well as assisted Wayinia with the process of registering 

their Swedish company. 

“Thanks to the large number of life science 

companies in the Medicon Valley cluster and the 

proximity to Copenhagen Airport, with direct flights 

to the rest of the world, Lund and Medicon Village is 

the perfect location for us,” says Chaudhary.

TOP STORIES 

FINANCING 

ULTIMOVACS 

ENTERS THE 

OSLO STOCK 

EXCHANGE 


Christoffer Lorenzen, 

CEO, Karo Pharma 

BUSINESS DEAL 

KARO PHARMA ACQUIRES TRIMB 

THE COMPANY HAS ACQUIRED ALL THE SHARES OF TRIMB HOLDING AB FROM 

AVISTA CAPITAL PARTNERS AND OTHER SHAREHOLDERS FOR SEK 3,400 MILLION. 

HE TRANSACTION IS expected to 

contribute positively to Karo 

Pharma’s market position and 

create a strong platform for Karo 

Pharma’s continued growth. The 

combined company had annual 

sales of approximately SEK 2,640 million for 2018. 

“Trimb is a distinguished company within 

over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and consumer 

healthcare products. Over the past years, the 

company has successfully built a Nordic business 

and a growing presence in Northern Europe. Trimb 

complements Karo Pharma well, both in terms of 

geographical presence, distribution channels and 

product offering. I look forward to continuing this 

THE COMPANY 

ANNOUNCES 

the addition 

of Nobel 

Laureate 

Dr James 

Allison and 

Oncologist 

Dr Padmanee 

Sharma from the MD Anderson 

Cancer Center to its SAB and as 

Company Strategic Advisors. 

Dr James (Jim) Allison (PhD) is 

Regental Professor and Chair of 

Immunology and Executive Director 

of Immunotherapy at the MD 

Anderson Cancer Clinic, University 

of Texas. He is also a director 

of the Cancer Research Institute 

scientific advisory council. 

His research elucidated the 

mechanism behind T cell activation 

and pioneered the first immune 

checkpoint blocker drug 

journey in a combined company,” comments 

Christoffer Lorenzen who took over as Karo 

Pharma’s new CEO 1 July 2019. 

ARO PHARMA ESTIMATES that the 

transaction will bring synergy 

potential for the company in 

the form of both sales and cost 

synergies. The company has 

an ambition to achieve annual 

synergies of SEK 50 million in 2021 when fully 

realized. Achieving these synergies implies 

estimated integration costs of approximately SEK 

30–40 million in total, which will be taken during 

the period 2019 and 2020. 

NOBEL LAUREATE 

JAMES ALLISON JOINS LYTIX BIOPHARMA’S 

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD 

for the treatment of cancer. His 

work has radically transformed the 

landscape for cancer treatment, 

shifting it away from targeting a 

tumour to instead using the 

immune system to destroy 

cancer cells. His current research 

is focused on improving the 

utility of checkpoint blockade and 

identifying new targets to unleash 

the immune system to eradicate 

cancer. 

The Norwegian cancer 

vaccine company has 

raised NOK 370 million 

and entered the Oslo 

Stock Exchange on June 

3rd 2019. 

SEVERAL INTERESTED PARTIES 

have now become shareholders 

in the company, totaling 

approximately 1500 

shareholders. 

“It is good for the Norwegian 

health industry and 

for Ultimovacs when national 

and international investors 

show the company this kind 

of trust. In today’s uncertain 

market, it is especially nice 

with such a large interest, 

from both international 

investors and small savers. I 

look forward to following the 

company further,” says Jonas 

Einarsson, Chairman of the 

Board in Ultimovacs and Managing 

Director in Radforsk. 

The funds that Ultimovacs 

has raised will go to 

financing the development 

of their universal cancer 

vaccine, UV1. A large clinical 

study will document the 

effect of the vaccine. UV1 

will be combined with other 

immunotherapies in patients 

with malignant melanoma (a 

type of skin cancer) at around 

30 hospitals in Norway, 

Europe, USA and Australia. 

Ultimovacs has already run 

two successful clinical trials of 

the vaccine on patients with 

lung cancer, prostate cancer 

and malignant melanoma. 

“I am very happy that 

we now have entered the 

Oslo Stock Exchange. It 

means that the practical 

conditions are in place to 

put our development 

program into action,” says 

Øyvind Kongstun Arnesen, 

CEO of Ultimovacs. 



PHARMA 

ASTRAZENECA’S 

CALQUENCE 

GRANTED BREAK- 

THROUGH THERAPY 

DESIGNATION 

THE FDA HAS GRANTED THE 

DESIGNATION AS A MONOTHERAPY 

TREATMENT FOR ADULT PATIENTS 

WITH CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC 

LEUKAEMIA (CLL). 

BUSINESS DEAL 

QUANTERIX CORPORATION WILL ACQUIRE PRIVATELY HELD UMAN- 

DIAGNOSTICS FOR $22.5 MILLION, COMPRISED OF $16 MILLION IN CASH 

PLUS $6.5 MILLION IN QUANTERIX COMMON STOCK. 

HE MERGER 

BETWEEN 

the companies 

holds 

great promise 

for 

unlocking 

the value of Neurofilament 

Light, says Niklas Norgren, 

CEO of UmanDiagnostics. 

UmanDiagnostics, based 

in Umeå, Sweden, supplies 

Neurofilament Light (Nf-L) 

antibodies and ELISA kits, 

widely recognized by researchers 

and biopharmaceutical and 

diagnostics companies worldwide 

as the premier solution 

for the detection of Nf-L to 

advance the development 

of therapeutics and diagnostics 

for neurodegenerative 

conditions. Nf-L has seen a 

dramatic growth in the last 

three years since Quanterix 

developed the first assay using 

Uman’s antibodies that could 

reliably measure Nf-L in blood. 

Nf-L has demonstrated 

utility in the diagnosis, prognosis, 

and monitoring of a wide 

range of conditions including 

Alzheimer’s Disease, Multiple 

Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, 

traumatic brain injury (TBI), 

ALS, Huntington’s Disease. 

“We believe that the ability 

to measure Nf-L in blood is 

one of the most significant 

advances in diagnosis and 

monitoring of a wide range 

of neurodegenerative conditions 

and has the potential 

to dramatically improve the 

The UmanDiagnostics team 

lives of people suffering from 

some of the most debilitating 

diseases impacting society,” 

says Kevin Hrusovsky, CEO of 

Quanterix. ”The acquisition 

will allow us to better support 

growing research with Nf-L 

and ultimately has the potential 

to accelerate the availability 

of diagnostic tests.” 

“We greatly look forward to 

further advancing the field as 

part of Quanterix. We are compelled 

by Quanterix’ vision, 

mission, and strategy for disrupting 

the field of neurodegeneration 

research and diagnostics 

and are confident in the 

management team’s ability to 

continue its superb execution 

against this substantial opportunity,” 

says Niklas Norgren. 

THIS IS AN important regulatory 

milestone for our work in 

haematology and for patients 

living with chronic lymphocytic 

leukaemia, a life-threatening 

disease, states José Baselga, 

Executive Vice President, 

Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca. 

”The Breakthrough Therapy 

Designation (BTD) acknowledges 

the growing body of evidence 

that supports Calquence 

as a highly-selective Bruton 

tyrosine kinase inhibitor with 

the potential to offer patients a 

new, differentiated, chemotherapy-free 

treatment option 

with a favourable safety profile,” 

says Baselga. 

The FDA granted the BTD 

based on positive results from 

the interim analyses of the 

ELEVATE-TN and ASCEND 

Phase III clinical trials. Together 

the trials showed that Calquence 

alone or in combination significantly 

increased the time 

patients lived without disease 

progression or death, with 

safety and tolerability that was 

consistent with its established 

profile. 

This is the 10th BTD that 

AstraZeneca has received from 

the FDA since 2014. 

José Baselga 

12 

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BUSINESS 

ENTERS LICENSE AGREEMENTS 

Together with Everest Medicines the company will 

develop and commercialize Nefecon in Greater China 

and Singapore and it has also in-licensed Budenofalk 

for the US market from Dr. Falk Pharma. 

NDER THE TERMS 

of the agreement 

with Everest, Calliditas 

will receive an 

initial upfront payment 

of MUSD 15 on signing of 

the agreement, as well as future 

payments linked to pre-defined 

development, regulatory and 

commercialization milestones 

up to an additional MUSD 106, 

including an option worth up to 

MUSD 20 for the development 

of Nefecon in other potential 

indications. Everest will also pay 

typical royalties on net sales. 

Calliditas is currently running 

a global Phase 3 clinical trial with 

Nefecon for the treatment of patients 

with IgAN. The agreement 

gives Everest exclusive rights 

to develop and commercialize 

Nefecon in China, Hong Kong, 

Macau, Taiwan and Singapore 

and may, depending on the 

outcome of consultation with the 

relevant regulatory authorities, 

lead to the inclusion of Chinese 

study centers in the ongoing 

study, NefIgArd, with the result of 

achieving registration approval 

for the Chinese market on an 

accelerated basis. Following 

potential registration approvals, 

Everest will be responsible for 

the commercialization of Nefecon 

in the relevant territories. 

HE AGREEMENT WITH 

Dr. Falk covers all 

indications for the 

US market, excluding 

orphan indications 

outside of liver targets. Initially, 

Calliditas will leverage Dr. Falk’s 

clinical trial data and expertise in 

liver indications, such as autoimmune 

hepatitis with a view to 

accelerate approval and market 

access. The deal has an initial 

upfront payment of M€1.5 and 

foresees additional regulatory 

related payments, subject to 

market approval from the FDA. 

The total deal value amounts 

to M€40, including future sales 

milestones and comes with 

typical royalties. 

Calliditas initially aims to 

leverage positive clinical trial 

data from Dr. Falk to support discussions 

with the FDA, focused 

on receiving guidance on the 

clinical program necessary to 

obtain an approval to market the 

product in the US. 

ANETTE ROMARE 

M.Sc. Chem. Eng. & Biotechnology 

European Patent Attorney 

Anette has a chemical background 

with particular expertise in 

absorbent products. She has vast 

experience of EPO opposition and 

appeal proceedings as well as 

patent evaluations and opinions. 

www.valea.eu


PHOTO LARS OWESSON/GAMBRO 

Guido Oelkers, CEO, Sobi 

REORGANIZATION 

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) will acquire, from Novimmune’s 

shareholders, a newly established company owning emapalumab 

and related assets. It has also announced a reorganization and 

90 employees will be laid off. 

in orphan drugs a cost reduction for the 

application fee for future products and 

shortens the review period. The voucher 

can be used or sold by Sobi. 

“This will allow us to realize the full 

potential of emapalumab as an important 

treatment in the area of Immunology and 

address a significant unmet medical need. 

Immunology is one of our key focus areas 

where we can make a significant difference 

to patients’ lives. We look forward 

to welcoming our new colleagues to join 

us in this mission and create an even 

stronger Sobi,” says Guido Oelkers, Sobi 

President and CEO. 

The company has also announced that 

it intends to carry out a reorganization 

to increase the focus of R&D resources 

to support its two core therapeutic areas: 

Haematology and Immunology. The 

company intends to establish two centers 

of excellence, for Haematology in Sweden 

and for Immunology in Switzerland. 

Sobi also intends to discontinue 

discovery/early research and partner 

R&D programs outside its core focus 

areas. This includes the intention to 

divest the SOBI-006 project and the 

SOBI003 project. The new focus of the 

R&D organization is expected to lead to 

annual savings of SEK 200–300 million 

on a full-year basis in 2020, which will 

increase the company’s financial flexibility 

to reallocate future investments into 

late-stage development projects. 

Restructuring costs of around SEK 

100–200 million relating to the reorganization 

and redundancies corresponding 

to approximately 90 positions will be 

charged in 2019. 

the acquisition is CHF 515 M (SEK 4,897 

million), of which CHF 400 M was previously 

committed in the exclusive license 

agreement for emapalumab. The acquisition 

is expected to be earnings neutral in 

2019 and completed during Q3 2019, 

subject to customary closing conditions. 

Through the acquisition of emapalumab, 

Sobi gains access to: all assets relating 

to emapalumab including intellectual 

property, patent rights, data and knowhow, 

all relevant and highly experienced 

employees involved in the clinical and 

biopharmaceutical development of 

emapalumab, options for the shared 

financial rights to NI-1701 and NI-1801, 

two product candidates in the field of 

immuno-oncology, a priority review 

voucher within the US Food & Drug 

Administration’s priority review program, 

which offers companies investing 

Sobi headquarters 

14 NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG

More than 25 years of experience 

■ Chemical and microbiological GMP analyses 

■ Method development and validation 

■ Pharmacopoeia and customised methods 

■ Stability studies 

■ Probiotic testing 

Contact: +45 6593 2920 • dblab@dblab.dk • dblab.dk 

– more than a lab

BUSINESS 

INTERVIEW 

NanoZolid enables the 

controlled, long-term 

and personalized release 

of drugs for up to six months

The last few months have been very eventful for LIDDS; the last 

patient has been enrolled in their localized treatment of prostate 

cancer study and they are evaluating a possible listing on Nasdaq 

Stockholm’s Main Market. The CEO of LIDDS, Monica Wallter, 

gives us an update. 

TEXT 


hat’s next for LIDDS 

and what results can 

we expect during 

2019? 

“LIDDS will report 

the Phase IIb study 

very soon. Also, the Phase I study where solid 

tumors are injected with NanoZolid combined 

with docetaxel is ongoing and the first patient is 

treated. We have a preclinical program ongoing 

with STING agonists and additionally have very 

interesting other immune-oncology projects in 

the feasibility stage. Other highlights this year 

include the hiring of Charlotta Gauffin as Head 

of Clinical Development, and Markus Thor as 

Head of Business Development. 

We have also been invited to present the 

possibilities with the NanoZolid technology at 

recent conferences. Associate Professor Niklas 

Axén, Inventor and Head of Technology and 

Patents, attended the Pharma R&D Conference 

in Paris in March, and Stefan Grudén, Director 

of Pharmaceutical R&D, presented at the Formulation 

& Drug Delivery Congress in London in 

April.” 

What are your hopes and expectations 

for the future? 

“That LIDDS will be able to out license the 

clinical projects in prostate cancer and local 

cytostatic treatment of solid tumors after results 

are available. Additionally, that new projects will 

enter into clinical stage in the coming years.” 

You are evaluating a possible listing, what 

are the advantages? 

“A listing on Nasdaq Stockholm’s Main Market 

is a natural next step in the company’s development. 

Hopefully it will contribute to increased interest 

from a broader investor base as well as increased 

visibility, both in Sweden and globally.” 

In April, you initiated a novel TLR9 agonist 

project and announced a plan for a phase I 

clinical trial. Tell me more? 

“The NanoZolid technology addresses key 

issues in developing TLR agonists, as repeated 

intratumoral injections are needed using standard 

formulations. We will be focusing our project 

on TLR9, one of the most promising targets for 

increasing response and reversing resistance to 

immunotherapies. TLR9 agonists have been 

shown to be most effective when injected directly 

into a tumor. A preclinical program is ongoing to 

broaden the results obtained to date and we are 

now preparing for a Phase I clinical trial using 

NanoZolid combined with a TLR9 agonist. The 

first human study is planned to commence in 

2020. There is significant commercial potential 

in this area of research and drug development 

and the market for TLR agonists is expected to 

be worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the 

coming years.” NLS 

Monica Wallter 

FACTS 

NANOZOLID 

LIDDS AB 

develops 

injectable drugs 

for cancer and 

other diseases 

based on a 

NanoZolid 

technology. 

NanoZolid 

helps solve 

some of the 

main problems 

with the way 

drugs work in 

the body and 

which affect 

patient quality 

of life. NanoZolid 

enables the 

controlled, 

long-term 

and personalized 

release 

of drugs for up 

to six months. 

NanoZolid can 

be combined 

with traditional 

small molecules, 

as well as with 

larger molecules. 

In March this 

year the United 

States Patent 

and Trademark 

Office issued 

a Notice of 

Allowance for 

the NanoZolid 

technology 

patent. The 

same patent 

was approved 

by the European 

Patent Office in 

2018. With this 

new US patent, 

the NanoZolid 

technology will 

be protected 

until 2037 in 

both Europe 

and the US. 

NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 

17

PHASE III 

THE COMPANY HAS ANNOUNCED POSITIVE OVERALL SURVIVAL (OS) RESULTS FROM 

THE PHASE III CASPIAN TRIAL WITH IMFINZI IN 1ST-LINE EXTENSIVE-STAGE SMALL 

CELL LUNG CANCER (SCLC). 

A PLANNED INTERIM analysis conducted by an Independent 

Data Monitoring Committee concluded 

that the trial has met its primary endpoint by showing 

a statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful 

improvement in OS in patients treated with 

Imfinzi in combination with standard-of-care etoposide 

and platinum-based chemotherapy options 

vs. chemotherapy alone. The safety and tolerability 

for this Imfinzi combination was consistent with the 

known safety profiles of these medicines. 

“The Phase III CASPIAN results offer 

new hope for patients who are facing the 

devastating diagnosis of small cell lung 

cancer, and for whom new medicines are 

urgently needed. This is the first trial offering 

the flexibility of combining immunotherapy 

with different platinum-based regimens in 

small cell lung cancer, expanding treatment 

options,” says José Baselga, Executive Vice 

President, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca.

PHASE I/IIA 

NEW CLINICAL 

DATA FROM 

BIOINVENT 

Team Targovax 

COMBINATION TRIAL 

Martin Welschof, 

CEO, BioInvent 

Clinical responses were observed in three out of nine patients in 

part 1 of the ONCOS-102 and Keytruda combination trial in anti-PD1 

checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) refractory advanced melanoma. 

HE PRIMARY AND 

secondary 

endpoints of 

the trial are to 

assess safety, 

immune activation 

and clinical responses of 

ONCOS-102 and Keytruda 

combination treatment. The 

main scientific aim is to test 

the hypothesis that ONCOS-102 

can immune activate anti-PD1- 

resistant patients to respond 

to re-challenge with an anti- 

PD1 CPI. 

Part 1 safety data now shows 

that the sequential ONCOS-102 

and Keytruda treatment regimen 

is well tolerated. The efficacy 

is also very encouraging, with 

three of nine patients demonstrating 

a clinical response 

(33% ORR). 

The data also confirms the 

hypothesis that ONCOS-102 

is able to immune activate 

treatment-resistant tumors to 

respond to re-challenge with 

an anti-PD-1 CPI. ONCOS-102 

was also seen to induce profound 

innate and adaptive immune 

activation. 

Part 2 of the trial is currently 

enrolling patients, where safety 

and efficacy of a more intensive 

treatment regimen of 

twelve ONCOS-102 injections 

will be evaluated. 

TARGOVAX HAS NOW also 

initiated an expansion part in 

their phase I/II trial with ON- 

COS-102 in combination with 

durvalumab. All safety reviews 

during the dose escalation 

phase have been completed 

with no Dose Limiting Toxicities 

(DLT) reported and the five 

US hospital sites are now open 

for further recruitment. 

This trial investigates the 

safety, biologic and anti-tumor 

activity of ONCOS-102 in 

combination with Imfinzi 

(durvalumab, anti-PD-L1) in 

patients with advanced peritoneal 

malignancies who have 

failed prior standard chemotherapy 

and have histologically 

confirmed platinum-resistant 

or refractory epithelial ovarian 

or colorectal cancer. 

Magnus Jäderberg, 

CEO, Targovax 

THE COMPANY HAS announced the 

publication of the first data from 

two parallel Phase l/lla clinical 

trials of its lead product candidate 

BI-1206 as a single agent and/or in 

combination with rituximab, 

currently being conducting in the 

UK and the US/EU, respectively. 

In the UK trial, 10 patients have 

received single agent therapy 

with up to 100 mg BI-1206 once 

weekly for a period of 4 weeks. 

In the US/EU study, five patients 

have received up to 100 mg 

BI-1206 in combination with 

rituximab. 

Receptor occupancy is dose 

proportionate and anticipated 

to yield high levels of receptor 

blockade at clinically relevant doses 

of BI-1206. While target-mediated 

drug disposition has not yet been 

overcome, as the optimal dose has 

still not been reached, pharmacodynamic 

analysis at the current doses 

showed depletion of peripheral B 

cells, including circulating mantle 

cell lymphoma cells during the first 

week of induction therapy. 

“These are exciting results that 

further support the development of 

BI-1206 as a potential first-in-class 

therapeutic with a unique mechanism 

of action. Circumventing 

rituximab internalization by FcγRIIB 

blocking means it will potentially 

enhance rituximab’s efficacy,” says 

BioInvent’s CEO, Martin Welschof. 


sheds light on 

inventors whose pioneering findings have 

provided answers to some of the biggest 

challenges of our times. In the medical 

technology sector, in the category research, 

the French immunologist Jérôme Galon 

was the winner. 

Galon has developed a diagnostic tool that helps medical 

staff predict the chances of recovery and risks of relapse in cancer 

patients based on the strength of their immune response. The 

test, Immunoscore, uses digital images of tumor samples and 

advanced software to measure the number of positive immune 

cells found at tumor sites, and is already in use at clinics around 

the world to improve the accuracy of prognosis for patients with 

colorectal cancer. 

“Jérôme Galon’s invention has had a major impact in the 

field of oncology,” said EPO President António Campinos. “It 

has already prompted the re-examination of cancer classification 

schemes and could ultimately give rise to new treatments. 

By launching a start-up and successfully using patents to commercialize 

his invention, Galon is bringing the technology to 

market so that his research efforts can make a difference where 

it counts most – in helping people.” 

EFFECTIVE THERAPIES WITHOUT OVER-TREATING 

Jérôme Galon broke new ground in cancer diagnostics in 2006. 

He showed that the strength of each patient’s immune system 

plays a key role in successfully fighting the condition. Galon 

patented his invention, an in-vitro diagnostic tool that quantifies 

the immune response of colon cancer patients at the site of the 

tumor. Independent researchers have since found that Immunoscore 

provides the most reliable prognostic to date for the risk 

of recurrence in solid cancers. 

“When I started working on cancer, the field was mostly 

focused on tumor cells,” Galon says. “But as an immunologist 

it was clear to me that the immune system plays a major role as 

well. By knowing how active his or her immune system is, we 

can predict if a cancer patient is at high risk or low risk of recurrence. 

This enables doctors to not only classify cancers more 

precisely, but also to give patients the most effective therapies, 

without over-treating them.” 

analyzing a 

small tissue sample that is surgically removed from the 

primary tumor of a patient. It monitors the cancer site, 

counting immune ‘cytotoxic’ T cells, which destroy 

cancerous or virally-infected cells. The more of these 

immune cells present in the tumor, the better the 

patient’s chances of survival. To conduct the test a 

specialized scanner takes digital images of the tumor 

sample on which the software counts the number of positive immune 

cells. An algorithm then calculates an overall Immunoscore 

for the patient based on T cell concentrations. This provides doctors 

with greater insight into both the severity of the cancer, and the risk 

of patients relapsing and dying in different stages of treatment. 

The test has been approved for use in colorectal cancer, where 

it has shown a 95% likelihood of predicting the overall survival 

of cancer patients, and has also reduced the unnecessary exposure 

of low-risk patients to toxic drugs. 

TRANSFORMING BASIC RESEARCH INTO REAL LIFE 

To bring his invention to market, Galon co-founded the 

Marseille-based company HalioDx in 2014. Over the past five 

years the company has grown to around 160 employees and 

raised more than EUR 26 million in financing. The company has 

partnered with medical distributors, including Philips, to share 

the benefits of Galon’s patented invention with more patients. 

“It is very rewarding to transform basic research into real 

life,” Galon says. “The company was supported by venture 

capital from the start, and investors looked hard at how deep 

and broad their patents were. Without the patents I would not 

have been able to raise the capital needed.” 

an immunologist 

at the Pasteur Institute and the 

Curie Institute in Paris and he received his 

PhD in immunology from Jussieu University 

in Paris in 1996. After working as a 

postdoctoral researcher at the National 

Institutes of Health in the US, Galon returned 

to Paris in 2001 to run a research 

group funded by INSERM. Today he is Director of Research at 

INSERM and Head of the Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology 

at the Cordeliers Research Center. NLS 


ADVERTORIAL 

BUSINESS PRESENTATION 

RegSMART 

Life Science AB 

She understands that working with these 

kinds of projects requires changes to the 

regulatory mindset, as well as increased 

interaction between regulators, health 

technology bodies and payers. 

“Considering the type of products in 

the pipeline today, there will be a limited 

amount of data for the authorities and 

payers to evaluate. This puts pressure on 

both authorities and companies.” 

Marie Gårdmark, CEO, 

RegSmart Life Science 

REGSMART LIFE SCIENCE 

Center for Translational Research (CTR) has established a new regulatory 

company, RegSmart Life Science, with a focus on pharmaceuticals and medical 

devices. To meet today’s regulatory challenges, Marie Gårdmark (CEO), sees the 

need for a closer relationship between companies and authorities. 

EGSMART’S AIM is to help 

scientists and companies 

navigate through a complex 

regulatory landscape. “The 

conditions for the development 

of pharmaceuticals and medical devices 

are rapidly changing and to find the most 

successful way forward, profound regulatory 

competence is needed. We understand how 

the authorities reason and that regulatory 

guidelines do not always give you a straight 

answer. There are hardly simple yes or 

no’s,” Marie Gårdmark says. 

A CHANGE IN CLINICAL RESEARCH 

Marie Gårdmark has extensive regulatory 

experience as Director of Licensing at the 

Swedish Medical Products Agency and has 

had several regulatory strategic roles within 

the pharmaceutical industry. She sees a 

change in clinical research with, for example, 

much focus on treatments targeting small 

but urgent need patient populations. 

“The patients understand their own 

needs and are important in the development 

of new products, for example to determine 

what endpoints are most important to them.” 

CENTER FOR TRANSLATIONAL 

RESEARCH AB is a holding company 

that was founded in 2016. CEO is 

Mats Lindquist. The company partly 

owns RegSmart Life Science AB and 

CTC Clinical Trial Consultants AB. 

WWW.REGSMART.SE 

MAKE SURE WE ARE PREPARED 

Together with CTR, Marie Gårdmark wants 

to contribute to competency development 

within Life Science in Sweden. She believes 

that the positive collaboration climate and 

strong scientific heritage supports an expanding 

Swedish Life Science. 

“I sometimes meet those who see regulatory 

experts as naysayers. In my experience 

we are the opposite. Guidelines and regulations 

are constantly emerging, driven by 

research from the pharmaceutical and medical 

device industries.” 

Marie Gårdmark believes that the development 

of advanced therapies (ATMPs) will 

continue in the future. 

“As a society, we are challenged by these 

types of products and we may need to review 

both regulations and business models 

to make sure that we are prepared.” 

Medical devices such as digital apps 

and diagnostics tools are also an emerging 

market. RegSmart will help identify gaps 

in the development of pharmaceuticals and 

medical devices and suggest how to move 

forward. 

“We will guide companies in understanding 

the current view of the regulators. 

We will help in risk and opportunity assessment 

and in the development of the project 

strategy.” 

KNOW THE CHALLENGES 

Marie Gårdmark believes that the regulatory 

plan is an important part of a product’s 

developmental plan. With her scientific 

background and experience from both big 

and small sized pharma, she knows the 

challenges. 

“It’s important to understand the scientific, 

regulatory and commercial issues at an 

early stage. My role as a regulatory expert 

is to read between the lines and visualise the 

perspectives of the authorities.” NLS 


FINANCING 

PHOTO SALSS 

PHOTO UP THERE, EVERYWHERE AB 


Eugen Steiner has worked 

in venture capital for 23 years, 

but his roots as a medical 

doctor still influence the way 

he nurtures start-ups as 

a venture partner. 

read more on page 26 

Five different Nordic venture 

capitalists share their thoughts 

on the Nordic life science 

capital landscape and give 

advice to companies looking to 

raise capital. 


Two Nordic life science 

companies, Athera 

Biotechnologies and 

Forendo Pharma, have 

recently raised capital 

and we highlight their stories. 


At SALSS D.C. 2019 Swedish 

life science companies gained 

valuable insight into how they 

could gain entry into the US 

pharmaceutical market, the 

largest in the world. 



25

26 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

a venture partner [at HealthCap – a family 

of venture capital funds investing globally in life sciences] 

is like a company doctor. I deliver companies and help them 

grow until they can stand on their own feet,” Steiner says. 

“People think of venture capital as a source of money. But 

it is so much more than that. It’s like a marriage. You’re an 

outspoken partner. There will be friction in the relationship, 

but you have to be able to sit down together and discuss the 

issues that come up. The company is like a baby. There will 

be problems along the way raising it, but you work it out.” 

With his years of executive management experience, Steiner 

has helped deliver many companies. He has served as CEO 

for HealthCap portfolio companies including Affibody, 

Biostratum, Creative peptides, Eurona Medical, Melacure 

Therapeutics, Nordic Vision Clinics, PyroSequencing and 

Visual Bioinformatics. 

It was not the career he imagined for himself when he became 

a medical doctor at the Karolinska Institute, where he earned 

a PhD in Clinical Pharmacology. Until 1987, Steiner practiced 

medicine at Karolinska Hospital. He became a specialist in 

clinical pharmacology and was active in pharmacogenetic 

research at the Karolinska Institute. 

“I never thought about doing anything other than medicine,” 

Steiner says, as he sits in the well-appointed, handsome 

conference room at HealthCap’s headquarters in Stockholm, 

a far cry from the hustle and bustle of a hospital. 

28 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

Eugen Steiner has for example 

served as CEO of Affibody, 

Biostratum, Creative peptides, 

Eurona Medical, Melacure 

Therapeutics, PyroSequencing 

and Visual Bioinformatics. 


29

Then, one day, an unexpected opportunity came his way. 

“I was invited to be CEO of a clinical lab company called 

Calab. They had invented the first large-scale laboratory robots 

and were pioneers in building automated computerized analytical 

machines. They were keen that a doctor and researcher should 

be in the lead. The offer came out of the blue really. It was not 

something I was looking to do. I was happy with my career, 

after my PhD.” 

The offer, he reflects, is not one he could refuse. “It was 

basically a door that opened. In academia it would take ten 

or more years to have your own lab, but here I was being 

invited to do just that,” Steiner says. “And it was there that 

I learned about running a business.” 

When he left his position at Calab in 1996 after the company 

was sold to the healthcare company Capio, Steiner says, “I started 

to look around for something else to do.” 

At the time HealthCap had just been started by Björn 

Odlander and Peder Fredrikson. “They were sitting on boxes 

with borrowed furniture,” Steiner recalls when he met with 

them. “They started something unique in Sweden: venture 

capital in life sciences. A lot of large pharmaceutical companies 

like AstraZeneca [formerly Astra AB] and Pharmacia had 

been investing in medical research but at the time there was 

no venture capital.” 

Steiner was intrigued and agreed to come on board. Today 

HealthCap is one of the largest life sciences venture capital 

firms in Europe. It has invested in 113 companies, with 22 

approved drugs, $40 billion in accumulated sales, 50 medical 

technology products, and over two million treated patients. 

Some 50 to 70 clinical trials are usually ongoing at any time 

with its portfolio companies, Steiner says. There have been 

over 66 exits. 

His preference, he says, is working with start-ups. “I have 

worked with a dozen companies. Some are public companies 

today, others unfortunately failed, while still others were 

acquired.” 

The journey, he explains, is always interesting, even when 

a promising idea or company doesn’t pan out in the end. “We 

focus on the companies, to reach breakthrough rather than 

finances. It’s about recruiting the right people as well as raising 

money and building the infrastructure of the company. We 

not only invest money, we invest a lot of our time and our 

soul into the companies we work with.” 

Like an ambitious child, these companies often yearn to 

spread their wings far from home. For many, that means 

becoming a successful life sciences company in the US. It is 

the biggest pharmaceutical market in the world, valued at 

around $446 billion in 2018, and representing over 45 percent 

of the global pharmaceutical market. 

Steiner agrees it is important for a Swedish company to 

have a physical presence in the US. “Once you start large 

clinical trials it is good to have a location in the US,” he says. 

30 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

”När människor tänker på ”framtiden” tycks 

den ofta upplevas som väldigt långt borta. Därför 

har vi döpt museet till ”imorgon”. Det ligger närmare 

i tiden och påverkas av vad vi gör idag.” 

HUGO BARRETO, GENERALSEKRETERARE FÖR ROBERTO MARINHO FOUNDATION 


31

32 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

To help their portfolio companies get a foothold in the US, 

HealthCap often co-invests with companies in the US. 

“It is easier for Europe to invest in the US than for US 

investors to do the same here. There is ample opportunity to 

invest in the US. Swedish companies are known to have very 

good quality and a high valuation.” 

He notes that the investment landscape in the US moves 

much more quickly and it is most likely the larger American 

investment or venture capital firms that will invest in Swedish 

companies. 

But whether the initial market is in Sweden, Europe or the 

US, the challenges of becoming successful are often significant 

for a life science start up, Steiner explains. HealthCap, for 

instance, receives some 300 to 400 proposals each year and 

can only accept a few. 

“For those companies we do choose to work with, the sky’s 

the limit for helping them reach their potential. Once we 

decide to invest, the next day we are a company’s best friend 

and will open our networks for them and do everything we 

can to help them succeed. We are also very respectful and try 

to be helpful in other ways when we have to say no,” he says. 

He lists all of the expertise a successful life science start-up 

must possess, especially to break into the US market: an 

understanding of the disease area in which the company is 

focused; and knowledge of the drug development process and 

the regulatory environment. 

“We look for people who can manage all these complexities,” 

he says. “There’s a difference between the geniuses who 

invent stuff and very smart people who can turn the discovery 

into products. You need both, as well as the business developers 

who create the network, and the investors.” 

“We also encourage companies not to build too large fixed 

cost structures, but to use consultants for efficiency. It is important 

to find out quickly if the technology works or doesn’t 

work, so it doesn’t cost investors so much money as opposed 

to failing late at the clinical stage,” he says. 

That is because the world yearns for the solutions that 

science and medicine can offer, he adds. 

“Society wants the solutions that healthcare can provide. 

The new drug that has taken years to develop may seem 

expensive but if it will reduce the total cost of care for a 

disease, or reduce the number of days in the hospital, the 

economics are often beneficial,” Steiner says. “We are always 

looking at that. We understand the medical needs. We’re 

looking for companies that really solve medical needs – not 

an improved mousetrap but which offer innovations that in 

a fundamental way tackle a medical problem.” 

Would he turn back the clock and return to his days in the 

research lab or as a practicing medical doctor? Not a chance, 

Steiner says. 

“What’s incredible is the close interaction I have with 

all these very smart people who do brilliant work. And yes, 

sometimes they fail. But even then, we try to help them find 

positions where they can do good. They are really passionate 

people. It’s a privilege to work in this environment.” NLS 

As for mistakes to avoid, Steiner advises start-ups that before 

there is any real revenue, “make sure there is money to pay 

the bills. And don’t plan clinical trials that aren’t designed to 

really answer the questions you need to answer. If you take 

shortcuts, it is seldom profitable. And if you’ve done everything 

right, and you still don’t succeed, the ethical thing is to 

close down the company. Otherwise it’s a waste of investors’ 

money, resources and people.” 

Steiner knows all too well the barriers that face even the 

most promising start-up. “Even though times have been 

good, it is difficult to raise capital for them. And very few 

life sciences companies actually make money today, with 

real sales. But good companies who have good people and a 

novel, well-thought-out product and strategy will always find 

capital – even when times are not so good.”

Christian Elling, 

Managing Partner, 

Lundbeckfonden 

Emerge

hat kind of companies 

are you and 

your colleagues 

focusing your 

investments on? 

And what stages? 

“We seek to identify and initiate development 

of scientific opportunities that could 

solve significant unmet medical needs and 

that have substantial commercial impact 

and value. We also make Exploratory 

Investments – investments in exciting and 

promising projects that have no or very 

limited data to support the investment 

hypothesis. It is high risk and we only invest 

less than two million EUR to begin with, 

but later – if the idea turns out to be as 

amazing as we thought – we can make follow 

up investments and provide substantially 

more capital to further develop the company. 

The Lundbeck Foundation also has a 

philanthropic side, where we grant more 

than 500 million Danish kroner in academic 

research grants every year – more than 

half of that is given to brain research.” 

What are some of your basic criteria 

to invest capital in a company? What 

factors do you consider especially 

important? 

“To put it simply, we are looking for great 

science and great people. We often invest in 

early stage companies. The Lundbeckfonden 

Emerge is about translating exciting new 

science and less about late stage clinical phase 

2 or 3, unless in niche indications. We invest 

in early stage companies or even in an amazing 

idea with not much data that we find exciting. 

But it can also be a project that has been 

around for some time, e.g., growing from 

pre-clinical to clinical. 

The intention is to stay with the company 

from the initial investment until an exit, which 

typically would require clinical phase 2 

data. That means we can own companies 

for quite a number of years. We are quite 

picky in what companies we invest in. They 

have to fit us, our strategy and what we are 

trying to achieve. We make fewer investments 

than some other investors. However, that 

enables us to ensure we have enough cash 

reserves to allow companies to truly test 

their hypothesis. 

We are active owners. That means 

engaging with the company and founders 

to help them mature their plans and execution, 

ranging from as early as defining a 

professional business plan to how to make 

proper strategic choices later on. Quite 

a lot of the people we invest in are just 

out of university and don’t have a mature 

management team yet. We help them grow 

and build the company – sometimes we step 

in as interim CEO or COO and establish a 

good management team. But most of our 

later work is done from the board level, as 

a company over time needs to develop a 

strong management team.” 

Could you give an example of a common 

mistake among startups? 

“Underestimation. In many shapes and 

forms. Classical biotech drug development 

projects, and generally speaking new startups, 

underestimate what it takes to raise money. 

They don’t see clearly what investors are 

looking for to invest in their companies. 

They are great scientists but don’t have the 

experience it takes to build a company and 

that often makes them too optimistic with 

regards to what you can do and how the 

investors will react. 

The people we invest in have to show us 

their business plan and often those business 

plans require substantial revision. But as 

long as the idea is right, we can re-write the 

plan together and come up with something 

that we believe in – and eventually help get 

additional investors on board.” 

Could you mention a current strength 

or trend among Denmark’s life science 

companies? 

“Well, in recent years some local companies 

have successfully built international 

venture capital syndicates with their existing 

investors and raised substantial funds 

in early financing rounds. We have seen 

that in our portfolio of companies and that 

is very encouraging. Importantly, it reflects 

that there are local investors, such as 

Lundbeckfonden Emerge, who are willing 

and able to invest substantial amounts early 

to share the risk with new international 

investors. It is very important that this 

trend continues for the further development 

of local biotech.” 

What advice do you have for small 

and mid-sized life science companies 

looking to raise capital? 

“You are trying to develop a commercially 

valuable product, so focus on the product! 

What exactly is your product? What difference 

does it make for the patients and for 

the payers? Is there a need for it? US biotech 

companies are often more successful in 

building products because they understand 

that the product is key and focus on that 

early on. 

My second piece of advice is think long 

term, e.g., ask yourself when you want to 

reach the market. Any investor will look 

at your project and try to determine if it is 

thought through. Does your future product 

have merit – when it reaches the market 

in more than 10 years? Investors need to 

exit with a profit, they have to provide a 

return on investment, and they need to have 

a commercial product that makes sense for 

patients and payers when it reaches the 

market. My third piece of advice is think 

long and hard about your team. Are you 

employing the right people? Any investor 

is in the human resource business and 

invests in teams. What does your team look 

like and where will it take the company? 

And lastly, think about the syndicate 

of investors you are trying to build. Are 

you aligned with the investors? How can 

the investors help you get to where you 

need to go? Who will add value – money, 

knowledge, network, experience – to your 

company?” NLS 


35

team to be complete – we often help recruit 

to the team through our network, as the 

growth and development of a start-up 

requires different types of skillsets.” 


are you and 

your colleagues 

focusing your 

investments on? 


“Hadean Ventures is a Nordics-focused, 

European life science VC fund manager. 

We invest broadly in the life science space, 

including pharma/biotech, medtech, 

diagnostics, and digital health. We are a 

typical Ser A investor, but we also mix in 

some later stage investments.” 

Ingrid Teigland Akay, 

Managing Partner, 

Hadean Ventures 

Ingrid Teigland Akay is Managing Partner at Hadean Ventures, a life 

science fund manager that invests in life science companies across 

Europe, with a particular focus on the Nordic region. 




important? 

“We look for companies that can solve 

an unmet medical need, and a solid market 

potential needs to be present. The asset 

needs to be protectable, typically through 

patent protection. We furthermore look 

for management teams/founders whom we 

believe we can work well with for many 

years to come – through “thick and thin”. 

That doesn’t mean we expect a management 


mistake among start-ups? 

“Many start-ups underestimate the 

challenge and time it takes to raise capital 

and start this process to late. You should 

start initial conversations with investors 

early, preferably long before you need any 

money – such conversations help to understand 

what kind of aspects the investors 

focus on.” 


or trend among Norway’s life science 

companies? 

“There are a number of areas of 

strength, not only in Norway but across 

the Nordic region. These areas include oncology, 

immunology, medtech and digital. 

We have seen a strengthening of a number 

of life science hubs and clusters across the 

region that help grow interesting start-ups 

on the basis of very strong science.” 

What advice do you have for small and 

mid-sized life science companies looking 

to raise capital? 

“There are a couple of things I would 

highlight. First of all, as mentioned, don’t 

delay your fundraising process. These 

processes take a lot of time. Furthermore 

– know your audience and prepare well. 

Remember to adjust your presentation, 

your terminology and the level of details 

based on who you are speaking to. And 

ideally, try to team up with investors who 

can assist you with more than just the 

capital. The ideal investor is a long-term 

partner who understands your industry 

and is prepared to support you throughout 

the development.” NLS 


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Jonas Jendi, 

Investment Manager, 

Industrifonden 


are you and your colleagues 

focusing your 

investments on? And 

what stages? 

“As a foundation and VC fund we have 

a split focus on life science and technology. 

On the life science side our current focus 

lies on pharmaceuticals/biotech, medical 

devices, and digital health. We invest in early 

stage companies with global potential, and 

a first ticket is normally between 10–50 

million SEK.” 




important? 

“Obviously, the science and the team 

are key factors. We also seek out opportunities 

where there is a great unmet medical 

need, as well as a willingness to pay for 

innovation.” 

Could you give an example of a 

common mistake among startups? 

“We often see entrepreneurs underestimating 

the challenges in the transition 

from relying on soft funding to relying 

on equity funding. Another thing we see 

is unstructured cap table (crowded, too 

many owners and owners unaware of 

large upcoming funding needs).” 


or trend among Sweden’s life science 

companies? 

“Sweden has a large pool of experienced 

experts and executives, and in addition to 

that many risk-taking early stage investors, 

also with a deep expertise within the area.” 




“Invest in the early, pre-clinical work, 

even when that work is not appreciated 

by all funding sources. It will pay off later 

when pitching to international equity 

investors. Also, compare yourself directly 

to international peers, also in terms of 

fund raising, and aim high. And finally, 

build a strong team, with skillsets that 

complement each other.” NLS 


39

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important? 

“We want to see solid science and 

research behind the project that usually 

also entails that the teams – we always 

invest in teams instead of one wo(man) 

projects – have good networks in their 

professional field. Syndication is also important 

for us. Good syndicates increase 

the likelihood of success.” 

Petri Laine, Managing 

Partner, Innovestor Ventures 

ould you give an example 

of a common mistake 

among startups? 

“Underestimating costs. 

You should always budget 

for unseen delays or extra costs. Stakeholder 

management is also important. It is 

much easier to go for additional funding 

if you have kept your stakeholders and 

investors informed transparently about 

where your company is. Especially about 

the bad news.” 


are you and your 

colleagues focusing 

your investments 

on? And what stages? 

“Innovestor invests in all fields of 

technologies. Life science, medtech and 

health are some of the areas we are active, 

and the current portfolio is approximately 

25 companies. We have in our portfolio 

hardcore drug development as well as 

diagnostics and medical devices. Our initial 

investments have always been relatively 

early phase investments, but not seed.” 


or trend among Finland’s life science 

companies? 

“Universities have invested a lot in 

developing their business support systems. 

New novel treatments e.g., in oncology 

are interesting. A good example of that is 

Tenboron.” 




“Go out early. Go to events and meet 

people. Fund raising requires a lot of leg 

work and you ought to reserve enough 

time and resources for that.” NLS 


41

Jonas Hansson, 

Venture Partner, 

HealthCap 


are you and your 

colleagues focusing 

your investments on? 


“We invest in companies/assets in the 

precision medicine (right medicine for the 

right patient) space. We like to be early 

into the equity meaning that we often 

invest in seed or Series A financings. We 

also like to start companies ourselves 

around certain assets we identify. On the 

asset side, we like to invest in assets that 

have at least generated strong pre-clinical 

data in relevant disease models, or assets 

that are in early clinical development.” 

What are some of your basic criteria to 

invest capital in a company? 

“The criteria we look for are significant 

unmet medical need, where the product(s) 

we invest in has the potential to significantly 

improve the life of the patient it addresses, 

well-understood disease biology and 

mechanism of action for the drug(s) that 

the company is developing, and a strong 

team and IP. We also make sure we see a 

development plan forward (all the way to 

approval of NDA/BLA/MAA) that is possible 

to finance in the VC community, i.e., 

we should not be dependent on the public 

market or having to do a deal with large 

pharma/biotech. As I mentioned, we want 

to be early into the equity but invest in assets 

that are a bit more advanced.” 


mistake among startups? 

“That they have a very optimistic view 

on timelines, and hence capital needs, and as 

a result they are often under financed.” 

PHOTO DAN COLEMAN 


or trend among Sweden’s life science 

companies? 

”They have become better at attracting 

also international investors. We always 

syndicate with other VC’s when we invest 

in a company, and we often invite international 

investors into the deals we work on.” 

What advice do you have for a small or 

mid-sized life science company looking 


“Make sure you get the right investors 

onboard, i.e., those who can add more 

than just money, for example experience 

and networks.” NLS 


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ADVERTORIAL 

POTTERCLARKSON.COM 

BY STEPHEN MCNEENEY PHD, UK AND EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEY, 

PARTNER AT POTTER CLARKSON LLP 

started in the 

pharmaceutical 

industry, as an 

in-house patent 

attorney in the early 1990s, I figured 

that it was a fairly “safe“ environment 

in which to be employed. An apparently 

recession-proof business where IP, and 

patents in particular, were critical to 

profitability. The business was global 

and powered by huge research-based 

companies (“Big Pharma”), who took 

drugs all the way from preclinical 

research, through clinical development 

to commercialization. Drugs commanded 

high prices in the developed 

world, which represented almost the 

entire market in terms of value, with 

the US market being by far the most 

lucrative. Although the Hatch-Waxman 

Act, a US federal law designed to 

encourage generic drug manufacture 

and sale with a view to lowering prices, 

had been around for just a few years, 

generics companies were still somewhat 

smaller, often local organizations that 

tended not to enter the market until at 

least the basic patent covering a drug 

expired. 

Fast-forward 25 years and the pharmaceutical 

industry is still global, but it 

has had to evolve in response to everchanging 

healthcare and regulatory 

environments, on both a local and a 

global level. In first-world countries, 

ever-increasing demands on healthcare 

providers are coupled with downward 

pressure on drug pricing and more stringent 

regulatory environments imposed 

by national governments. Greatly enhanced 

generic competition has come 

from companies that are now themselves 

global players. The pharmaceutical 

market in developing markets is on a 

rapid upward trajectory. Despite these 

obvious opportunities, traditional 

western Big Pharma players have found 

such markets (particularly China) 

difficult to penetrate, given that they 

represent a somewhat uneven playing 

field, often having scant regard to 

intellectual property rights. Despite 

a degree of naivety, local companies, 

who are often subject to lower ethical 

and safety standards than is the case in 

the developed world, find it easier to 

meet local demand, and local governments 

and courts tend to assist further 

in that process. 

A response of Big Pharma to these 

pressures has been well-documented 

consolidation, with the inevitable 

consequence of job losses and facility 

closures. Things have quickly become 

fragmented, particularly in Sweden, with 

less fundamental, ground-breaking research 

being performed in-house. Larger 

pharmaceutical companies have moved 

towards becoming drug development 

houses, increasingly looking to smaller 

R&D-focused companies to fill their 

ever-shrinking pipelines. One might 

conclude that such a relationship should 

be a win-win, symbiotic one. 

he problem that so many 

of these innovative 

companies tell me that 

they experience is a lack 

of funding. In Sweden, investment 

is hard to come by at all stages 

of the development process. Although 

start-up money is often available to get 

things off the ground (target validation 

and/or lead identification), there is an 

absence of organizations that are willing 

to invest heavily in the next stage of 

development (e.g. up to candidate drug 

identification). This is less of an issue in 

Denmark, where large local pharmaceutical 

companies and associated investment 

arms are naturally more inclined 

to invest with the long game in mind. 

That said, it can still be very difficult 

to secure investment at the right 

time. Pharmaceutical R&D by its very 

nature is a risky business, and Big 

Pharma companies, the very organizations 

that are both able to commit 

both the necessary financial resource 

and have the technical competence in 

drug development to invest in the long 

term, are typically unwilling to take 

on big risks that were not “invented in

ADVERTORIAL 

POTTER CLARKSON 

house”, without conducting extremely 

rigorous due diligence. A pharmaceutical 

company is thus more likely to show 

interest in a project that has been taken 

at least some way into clinical development. 

Although it is tempting to conclude 

that pipelines will dry up unless smaller 

innovative companies are supported 

by large drug development companies 

in a less risk-averse way, I repeat that 

these companies are increasingly being 

squeezed on all sides in markets such 

as the US. It is no longer the case that 

products can necessarily be sold at a 

premium and pharmaceutical companies 

often pay rebates to health insurance 

companies, which can mean that, 

for some products, the net price can be 

lower than it is in Europe. In my view, 

Big Pharma applying such a high level 

of scrutiny is not them wanting to have 

it both ways. 

own rigorous due diligence, asking 

the same questions that a Big Pharma 

company would do. 

At some point, often early on, in a 

small company´s life, its patent estate 

will be scrutinized with a view to ascertaining 

whether effective protection for 

a product has been, or in all likelihood 

will be, obtained. 

THEY WILL ASK: 

01. How easy would it be for a competitor, 

such as generics company, to 

circumvent by designing around what is 

covered by a patent? 

02. Is the patent likely to stand up to 

scrutiny if challenged by a competitor? 

03. Does the technology infringe any 

third party’s legal rights? 

Stephen McNeeney 

urthermore, although the 

Hatch-Waxman Act was intended 

to level the playing field 

as between large multinational 

pharmaceutical concerns 

and smaller, US generics businesses, 

the tables have turned. Generic drug 

companies have seized the initiative created 

by the new law, which allows them 

to challenge patents without the risk of 

having to put a product on the market. 

The realization that they have so much 

to gain and relatively little to lose has 

empowered them to become more 

aggressive in their approach. Generics 

have themselves become multinational 

pharmaceutical companies, and often 

originator companies are not the big 

organizations they once were. 

If Big Pharma is unwilling to invest 

in early stage companies, it may therefore 

be necessary to sell a project´s 

potential to sophisticated private investors, 

or to secure funding via an IPO. 

Inevitably though, such investment 

comes at a price. It can be very hard to 

secure given that such investors will 

themselves naturally be looking for a 

lucrative exit when a Big Pharma player 

eventually does come on board. Such 

investors will thus often conduct their 

n view of this, it is critically 

important for small innovative 

companies to ensure that appropriate 

measures are taken to 

properly protect products at the 

outset. Ensuring that the protection afforded 

to a product has real commercial 

value is a balance between staking out 

what a company is legally entitled to 

versus what will stand up to legal scrutiny, 

either at a patent office or in court. 

This process cannot happen by itself 

and requires dialogue between inventors 

and their patent attorney. A clear 

overview of the prior art landscape is 

essential, as is a good patent attorney 

who, despite not necessarily having all 

the answers, will know what to ask to 

secure those answers. 

innovations 

coming out of small biopharmaceutical 

organizations across Scandinavia, it is 

vital that these enterprises “think big“ 

and behave like a Big Pharma company 

would when it comes to protecting their 

valuable ideas. A good invention is a 

good start but, in order to stand any 

chance of successfully bringing an idea 

ABOUT THE 

AUTHOR 

Stephen McNeeney PhD 

is an experienced UK and 

European Patent Attorney 

at Potter Clarkson, where 

he is a partner. Stephen 

completed his degree in 

chemistry and obtained a 

master’s degree in organic 

chemistry, before further 

achieving a PhD in the subject. 

He joined Potter Clarkson 

in 1996, specialising in 

pharmaceutical industryrelated 

inventions. 

Today, Stephen acts for a 

variety of clients, ranging 

from Big Pharma, through 

SME drug discovery and 

drug development companies, 

to start-ups and university 

spin-outs, many of which 

are based outside the UK, 

particularly in Scandinavia. 

to market, it is only the start. NLS NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 45

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FINANCING 

LIFE SCIENCE 

EXAMPLE 

NEW SHARE ISSUE 

Athera Biotechnologies announced the closing of a new share issue in May, raising in total SEK 

55 million from current major shareholders including Industrifonden and Östersjöstiftelsen, 

together with new shareholders from the Sciety network of investors. 

Carina Schmidt, CEO, Athera 

PHOTO UP THERE, EVERYWHERE AB 

developing a candidate 

for indications within cardiovascular 

disease, where current treatment is insufficient. 

Following completion of three Phase 

1 studies, it has now raised the capital for 

completion of a clinical Proof-of-Concept 

Phase 2 study, with the aim to close an 

agreement with a larger pharmaceutical 

company once the study is complete. 

Current major shareholders Industrifonden, 

Linc AB and Östersjöstiftelsen 

participated in the issue of new shares to 

finance the study. 

Sciety, a corporate finance firm specializing 

in life science, supported the process 

to raise the capital with the introduction of 

new investors from the Sciety-network. 

“We want innovations that make a 

difference to reach their full potential. 

We select promising companies and fund 

them for further growth,” says Andreas 

Lindblom, CEO at Sciety when describing 

their work. 

“Athera Biotechnologies is targeting 

a niche indication with high unmet need, 

while enabling further development for 

several broader cardiovascular disease 

indications. The first-in-class potential, 

strong IP protection, and drug development 

experience of the management and 

major shareholder is what attracted us to 

fund Athera,” he says. 

“Athera decided to work with Sciety for 

their effective process to raise capital, combined 

with their competence in life sciences 

and a strong investor network. With the help 

of Sciety we could complete the new issue of 

shares in a short time. Both management and 

major shareholders are very pleased with the 

collaboration,” says Carina Schmidt, CEO at 

Athera Biotechnologies. NLS 

NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 47 

PHOTO

WOMEN´S HEALTH 

In July Sunstone Life Science Ventures made a EUR 5 million investment into the Finnish 

women’s health company Forendo Pharma to finance clinical studies in endometriosis. 

PHOTO THOMAS ROENN 

Claus Andersson, Sunstone 

General Partner who will 

join Forendo’s Board of 

Directors 

has announced its first 

investment from its Life 

Science Ventures Fund IV 

into Forendo Pharma, a 

Finnish clinical stage drug development 

company focusing on novel treatments 

in women’s health. The investment is 

designated for financing the continuation 

of Forendo Pharma’s positive Phase Ia 

study in post-menopausal women into 

Phase Ib in pre-meno-pausal women, 

and later Phase II for the treatment of 

endometriosis. 

In March 2019, Forendo Pharma 

successfully completed a Phase Ia study of 

its lead program FOR-6219, a novel oral 

formulation of a tissue-specific treatment 

for endometriosis. FOR-6219 was found 

to be safe and well tolerated. 

Sunstone will be joining a syndicate 

of reputable active international investors, 

including Novo Seeds, Novartis 

Venture Fund, Vesalius Biocapital III and 

M Ventures (Merck). 

“Sunstone sees women’s health as an 

area with immense need of investments 

and with trending popularity. Endometriosis 

is a perfect example as approximately 

8% of all pre-menopausal women 

are affected with moderate to severe pain, 

infertility, and impaired quality of life 

as a consequence. We are very pleased 

to make this first investment under our 

new Fund IV, which earlier this year had 

its first closing at €80 million, with a 

target of €150 million at final closing,” 

says Claus Andersson, Sunstone General 

Partner, who will join Forendo Pharma’s 

Board of Directors. NLS

50

Barbro Ehnbom, 

the Founder of 

SALSS 

SALSS D.C. 2019 

“WHEN YOU PUT THE RIGHT BUSINESS PEOPLE TOGETHER 

AND THEY BECOME FRIENDS, THEY WILL END UP DOING 

BUSINESS TOGETHER,” SAYS BARBRO EHNBOM, THE 

FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF SALSS. 

TEXT 

b y AMY BROWN PHOTO b y S A L S S

52 

Ann Rose, CEO Regulatory, ViCro and 

Steven Eror, Strategic Investor, Hill Top 

Group, shared valuable advice to companies 

looking to enter the US market 

Anna Maroney, Vice President 

of Alliance Management, 

AbbVie, emphasized the importance 

of having a clear idea 

of where your innovation rests

the intention Ehnbom has had since 

she founded the Swedish-American Life Science Summit 

(SALSS) in 2005, an initiative to increase the level of crossborder 

business between one of the largest markets in the 

world, the United States, and one of the most important life 

science industry centers in Europe, Sweden. 

In April 2019, the invitation-only SALSS conference at the 

Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC brought together some 

of the most renowned life science executives, scientists, entrepreneurs 

and investors in both Sweden and the US. The aim 

is to build strategic and collaborative relationships between 

academia, industry and funders to enhance the life science 

business. SALSS also holds a three-day event in Stockholm 

annually with the same aim. 

The event is the brainchild of Ehnbom, a pioneer in the 

life science industry throughout her career. She was one of the 

first female executives in several US pharmaceutical companies, 

a top analyst on Wall Street, followed by many years of 

investment banking. She has played a particularly strong role 

in mentoring women in the life sciences industry as well as in 

business in general. 

great drugs but only a handful of these companies have good 

management.” 

Eugen Steiner, partner at HealthCap, a family of life 

science venture funds in Sweden, added that his firm actively 

tries to get American investors to invest in their portfolio 

companies and that co-investment is often a successful route 

for entry into the US market. “Otherwise you are competing 

with a lot of interesting investments in the life science and 

tech clusters around Boston and parts of California.” 

Maroney said that in the end, the ability to attract an 

investor “comes down to the science and the innovation, not 

necessarily the location.” From that perspective, a Swedish 

life science company with a truly novel idea has the same 

chance in the US market as any other start-up. 

“The Swedish brand is one of the finest brands in life science 

you can find today,” said Steven Eror, Strategic Investor 

with the Hill Top Group. “There are weaknesses in some of 

the companies that come over but these are the same weaknesses 

of any company today. I think there is a preference for 

giving a chance to a company from Sweden.” 

Swedish life science companies in attendance gained valuable 

insight into how they could gain entry into the important US 

pharmaceutical market, the largest in the world, during one 

of the panel discussions during the two-day event. 

“In terms of engaging with future partners, and with 

eventual entrepreneurs and pharma, you must have innovative 

science. Big pharma depends on the innovation that occurs in 

small companies,” said Dr. Anna Maroney, Vice President of 

Alliance Management, AbbVie, a US-based biopharmaceutical 

company. “Our pipeline is over 50 percent partnered in our 

firm. It is very important when entering into a discussion to 

have a clear idea of where your innovation rests and to be able 

to communicate that innovation in a way that is very compelling 

and concise and will engage us in further discussions.” 

Venture capital shouldn’t be the only source of funding that 

Swedish life science companies consider, according to Peter 

Kash, an entrepreneur and investor in the biotechnology sector, 

and Partner at the Kash Family Office. With over 25 years in the 

pharma industry, he has co-founded more than a dozen companies 

and co-raised over $800 million in private and financings. 

“Companies seeking money shouldn’t just go over to 

venture capital but also try family foundation offices. If 

you want to nail a disease, no one is more passionate than 

someone who has a personal stake in it. Most family offices 

diversify, no one needs to make more than eight percent on 

investments and in nine years you can double your capital. 

The most important thing is the management. There are 

Dr. Alexander Nuyken, Partner & Head of Life Sciences, 

Transaction Advisory, EMEIA at EY, spoke about the growing 

trend of financing life science start-ups through crossborder 

mergers & acquisitions (M&A). 

“Approvals from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) 

are increasingly coming from smaller companies which 

creates opportunities for big pharma to source innovation 

externally, which is driving M&A and licensing deals.” 

Big pharma, he noted, is accessing innovation via dealmaking 

with an increase in early-stage deals and overall deal 

volume. “You have to be fast, place more bets and take more 

risks,” he said. 

Among the hot areas he noted are novel modalities that 

“are becoming personalized and curative disease treatments 

tailored to the individual patient in oncology and rare 

diseases. Cell therapy is another hot area, as well as gene 

therapy. I see these as being very hot in terms of investment. 

This trend is expected to continue, with novel technologies in 

high demand and attracting large capital.” 

“The option of cross-border M&As and other alternative 

means of funding may be better suited for our smaller cap 

Nordic companies,” noted Ylva Santesson, Senior Director of 

SALSS. “We must also seek opportunities to have US venture 

capital adapt to the conditions facing Nordic corporations in 

a realistic way, which would likely result in better return to 

venture capital investors and most importantly, stronger international 

companies and hence increased value for society.” 


53

54 

Barbro Ehnbom, the 

Founder and Chairman 

of SALSS 

The companies in attendance also benefited from a range of 

expertise including advice from Ann Rose, CEO and President, 

Regulatory for ViCro, a medical products company, on how to 

approach the FDA, and from Helén Waxberg, partner with the 

law firm Mannheimer Swartling, providing a legal roadmap on 

how to enter the US market and engage with the FDA. US Rep 

Diana DeGette (D-CO) shared insights into the Affordable Care 

Act. 

A select number of Swedish companies were invited to make 

presentations for the investors and other gathered. These were 

Affibody, Elypta, Cellink, BioArctic, Immunicum and Ziccum. 

For Ehnbom and Santesson, the 2019 conference achieved 

their aims of bringing Swedish life science to the attention of 

American investors. 

Maria Tufvesson Shuck, Partner, 

Mannheimer Swartling, 

and her colleagues provided 

a legal roadmap on how to 

enter the US market 

investors are starting to realize there are a 

lot of business opportunities they are missing out on because 

they are not looking at these smaller companies from Sweden,” 

Santesson said. “We need to find ways to enhance their interest 

and shift their attitudes. Obviously, the US is a huge market, 

with a totally different dimension of capital and a different way 

of doing business but there’s no reason why our Swedish companies 

can’t compete with the best.” NLS 

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ADVERTORIAL 

UNITED HEALTH FINLAND 

LIFE SCIENCES ARE THRIVING IN FINLAND AND IN THE FIVE REGIONS, OULU, 

KUOPIO, TAMPERE, TURKU AND HELSINKI, EACH OF WHICH HAVE UNIQUE 

STRENGTHS, YOU WILL FIND THE PERFECT PLACE FOR R&D, INNOVATION AND 

BUILDING A LIFE SCIENCE-BUSINESS.

BUSINESS PRESENTATION 

HELSINKI / OULU / TURKU / TAMPERE / KUOPIO 

Finland’s capital is home to a top-ranked 

university and hospital, as well as several 

successful life science companies, but is 

also home to initiatives that bring together 

the best Helsinki has to offer. 

One such example is the Health Capital Helsinki 

(HCH) alliance, formed in 2015 with the purpose 

of developing the region into a Northern 

European hub for life science and health tech 

innovations and business development. 

Since then HCH has facilitated commercialization 

of scientific research, increased 

the number of business ideas, startup companies 

and jobs, and has supported business 

growth and accelerated export. 

A key focus areas for HCH is the development 

and promotion of a unique ecosystem, 

possessing living labs and test environments 

such as the Clever Health Networks for 

digital health innovations, the HUS Testbed 

for testing an developing products and 

services in the Helsinki University Hospital 

environment and the Innovation House for 

the development of mobile applications and 

services in collaboration with healthcare 

professionals. It also focuses on business 

development, advice for startups, research 

services and offers communities and workspaces. 

Contact: healthcapitalhelsinki.fi 

Oulu is one of Europe’s leading health 

and ICT centers and is widely recognized 

as a city of innovation and business 

opportunities. 

The innovative ecosystem OuluHealth 

strengthens collaborations among the city, 

universities, research organizations and the 

private sector to stimulate economic growth, 

spur health innovations and provide a supportive 

test and development environment, 

OuluHealth Labs, for health tech businesses. 

OuluHealth Labs is composed of three 

testbeds that are equipped with cutting 

edge pilot facilities: OYS TestLab, an authentic 

hospital testing facility at Oulu University 

Hospital; Oamk SimLab, a versatile simulation 

and studio environment and Oulu Welfare- 

Lab, which allows testing to be carried out 

throughout the city of Oulu’s social and 

health service network, including in citizens’ 

homes. 

The region’s core expertise lies in health 

and information technologies, especially 

in medical imaging, robotics, printed electronics, 

artificial intelligence and 5G/6G 

that enables digitalization of the social and 

healthcare sectors. Oulu is also one of the 

first cities to test the 5G network in the hospital 

environment. 

The health and life science sector in Oulu 

is one of the best places to carry out research 

and develop successful businesses. You can 

come here with an idea and leave with a 

market ready product in your hand. 

Contact: ouluhealth.fi 

Turku has recently grown into an expertise 

center for developing and manufacturing 

biological drugs. Drug development and 

diagnostics are also common research 

profiling areas at the University of Turku 

and Åbo Akademi University. 

It is also expected that Finland’s new 

National Drug Development Centre will 

be located in Turku, serving researchers 

from all over the country and improving 

the commercial potential of findings at 

universities. 

Another important area in Turku’s life 

science sector is the evolving of real-worlddata 

where the city has initiatives through its 

biobank, as well as, for example Auria Clinical 

informatics, which is an EU-recognized 

DIH (Digital Innovation Hub). 

For entrepreneurs the city has a lot to 

offer, such as the life science accelerator program 

(Finland’s first), which generated nine 

new companies and attracted EUR 4 million 

in financing over a period of two years. 

It started with ERDF funding and will 

continue in the autumn of 2019 with an 

improved concept under the new name 

ProHEALTH ACCELERATOR. 

The program has enabled both startup 

companies and university projects to develop 

their business plans, get important end-user, 

business and funding contacts and thus prepare 

for a global breakthrough. 

Contact: turkubusinessregion.com 

Be it a large multinational company, a researcher 

or an entrepreneur, Tampere has the world 

class expertise and functional infrastructure 

to make things happen. 

The collaboration between research, business 

and clinics is strong and offers a fertile ground 

for health care and medical related players to innovate 

and grow. Numerous health tech start-ups 

with remarkable potential have also emerged 

from Tampere. For example, the biotechcompany 

Vactech has announced a partnership with 

Provention Bio, a US-based corporation listed on 

Nasdaq. The biomedical laser company Modulight 

has also announced collaboration with Bausch & 

Lomb to develop a new photodynamic laser. 

“Our start-ups and scale-ups are utilizing 

technologies, especially AI, imaging and sensor 

expertise in health care and medical solutions,” 

says Director Harri Ojala, Business Tampere. If 

you’re interested in the opportunities we have to 

offer in life sciences, Business Tampere is your 

first point of contact. 

Contact: businesstampere.com 

The Kuopio region is a global leader in the 

health and life sciences sectors, offering 

companies a unique industry ecosystem 

that stimulates innovation, supports research 

and development, and offers access to experts 

and talents to bolster business success. 

At the heart of Kuopio’s health sciences cluster 

is the KuopioHealth open innovation ecosystem, 

which promotes development, research and 

innovations based on customer needs and acts 

as a platform for new products and services. It 

is a network committed to promoting wellbeing, 

food industry and health care technology competence, 

research and business life as well 

as health care industry awareness locally, 

nationally and internationally. For companies 

developing health and wellbeing technologies, 

Kuopio Living Lab offers a product development 

and testing platform in collaboration with 

Kuopio University Hospital, the City of Kuopio, 

and Savonia University of Applied Sciences. 

Contact: businesskuopio.fi

TRONDHEIM 

Cilia in the nose of a zebrafish. 

Cilia are present in many other organs 

of the body of vertebrates. Here is shown 

the nose, cilia are in red, some cells are 

indicated in green and the nuclei are in blue. 

(Reiten et al., Current Biology, 2016)

CLINICAL SCIENCE TRIALS REPORT 

RESEARCH NEWS FROM THE NORDIC REGION 

These hairs, or cilia as they are called, have been poorly understood but if they are 

not functioning a person can develop neurological conditions like hydrocephalus and 

scoliosis. In an article in Current Biology researchers at NTNU have now provided 

more insight into how these cilia work and why they are so important. 

found that groups 

of cells with cilia are 

organized in different 

zones of the ventricles 

(the fluid cavities in the brain), which 

together create a stable, directional flow of 

the cerebrospinal fluid. 

“We found surprisingly little exchange 

of fluid between the ventricles as long as 

the fish were at rest, even though the heartbeat 

pulsations caused some flow between 

them,” says Emilie Willoch Olstad, first 

author of the article. “But when the animal 

moves, locomotion leads to a great degree 

of fluid exchange between the different 

ventricles.” 

To assess the function of motile cilia the 

researchers used mutant lines in which genes 

essential to either ciliary motility or cilia 

assembly are knocked out. In their study they 

found that in larval zebrafish mutants lacking 

cilia altogether, parts of the ventricular system 

were larger than in control siblings. However, 

in mutants where the cilia still assembled, 

but were immotile, the duct between two of 

the cavities appeared occluded. 

“In addition to genes supporting the assembly 

and motility of cilia, additional 

factors are suggested to impact other features 

of the cilia, such as their beating frequency. 

For instance, both neuropeptides and 

neural states are proposed to impact the ciliary 

beating (Conductier et al., 2013, Faubel et al., 

2016). Yet, such influences on the cilia and on 

the fluid flow remain poorly understood, and 

we are excited to further investigate this,” says 

Olstad. 

To Olstad’s knowledge no one has 

reported any specific numbers of motile 

cilia within the human brain. “However, 

they are suggested to cover a large surface 

area of the ventricles (Coletti et al., 2018). 

It is important that you have a sufficient 

number of motile cilia, as these contribute 

to the movement of cerebrospinal fluid 

along the ventricular walls. Several studies 

in both rodents, amphibians and fish suggest 

that the lack of functioning motile cilia 

along the ventricles causes hydrocephalus 

(enlarged ventricular cavities) and/or occlusion 

of the ducts connecting the ventricles. 

Although less frequent, humans with 

dysfunctional motile cilia (e.g. patients 

with primary ciliary dyskinesia) do also 

sometimes develop hydrocephalus.” 

led by Dr Jurisch 

-Yaksi (Department 

of Clinical 

and Molecular 

Medicine) are 

interested in further 

studying fluid circulation in the brain 

using better analytical tools and computer 

models. For example, new nerve cells are 

born near the wall of the ventricles and from 

here they might migrate to different areas 

of the brain. The differentiation of these 

new cells was suggested to be influenced 

by nutrients and molecular signals that are 

distributed by the flow of the cerebrospinal 

fluid near the ventricular walls (Sawamoto 

et al., 2006). The next step is now to see if it 

is possible to influence the brain functioning 

of the zebrafish by manipulating the 

cilia and vice versa. NLS 

A 4 DAYS OLD LARVAL ZEBRAFISH HEAD 

AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE BRAIN VEN- 

TRICLE OF A 2 DAYS OLD ZEBRAFISH 

(LEFT) AND AN ADULT HUMAN (RIGHT) 

REFERENCE 

OLSTAD ET AL., CILIARY BEATING 

COMPARTMENTALIZES CERE- 

BROSPINAL FLUID FLOW IN THE 

BRAIN AND REGULATES VENTRIC- 

ULAR DEVELOPMENT, CURRENT 

BIOLOGY, 2019 

ILLUSTRATION OLSTAD ET AL, CURRENT BIOLOGY, 2019 AND VARTAN KURTCUOGLU/ 

INTERFACEGROUP.CH & CHRISTA RINGERS/ WWW.YAKSILAB.COM

SCIENCE REPORT 

RESEARCH NEWS FROM THE NORDIC REGION 

PHOTO NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND 

INFECTIOUS DISEASES (NIAID) 

MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS IS A HUMAN 

PATHOGEN THAT HAS HAD A STAGGERING GLOBAL 

IMPACT. THE BACTERIUM MYCOBACTERIUM TUBER- 

CULOSIS CAUSES TUBERCULOSIS IN HUMANS. ONCE 

INSIDE THE BODY IT MORPHS INTO A TOUGHER 

FORM THAT CAN WITHSTAND MORE STRESS AND IS 

HARDER TO KILL. 

PHOTO MATTIAS PETTERSSON 

Fredrik Almqvist, 

Professor, Umeå University 

UMEÅ 

Scientists at Umeå University have found a molecular compound that prevents 

and even reverses resistance to the most widely used antibiotic for treating 

tuberculosis – isoniazid. 

TUBERCULOSIS IS CAUSED BY 

the bacterium Mycobacterium 

tuberculosis. Once 

inside the body, it morphs 

into a tougher form that 

can withstand more 

stress and is harder to 

kill. Rather than look for new and better 

antibiotics, researcher Christina Stallings, 

together with her fellow researchers 

at Washington University School of 

Medicine and Umeå professor Fredrik 

Almqvist, decided to look for molecular 

compounds that could prevent bacteria 

from becoming resistant. 

When put in a low-oxygen environment 

to mimic the stressful conditions that 

tuberculosis bacteria encounter inside the 

body, the bacteria come together and form 

a thin biofilm. This biofilm is resilient to 

not only low-oxygen conditions but also 

to antibiotics and other stressors. 

The researchers found one compound, 

called C10 that did not kill the tuberculosis 

bacteria but prevented them from 

forming a biofilm. “The molecule may 

also bolster the antibiotic’s power to 

kill tuberculosis bacteria – even those 

sensitive to drugs. This could mean 

that doctors could start thinking about 

cutting down the onerous six-month 

treatment regimen they prescribe today,” 

says Almqvist. 

Further experiments showed that 

blocking biofilm formation with C10 

made the bacteria easier to kill with 

antibiotics and even curbed the development 

of antibiotic resistance. In addition, 

one out of a million tuberculosis bacteria 

spontaneously become resistant to isoniazid 

when grown under typical laboratory 

conditions. But when the researchers grew 

tuberculosis bacteria with isoniazid and 

the compound, the drug-resistant mutant 

bacteria never arose. Most surprisingly, the 

compound even reversed drug resistance. 

“This could mean that by using a 

molecule like C10, we can give all those 

millions of people worldwide who carry 

isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis the option 

of using isoniazid again,” says Stallings. 

“Now we’re working on improving 

the compound itself so we can start 

testing it in animals. We are also trying to 

figure out how it prevents biofilm formation 

so that we can develop other drugs 

that target the pathway.” NLS 


SUSTAINING LAUNCH SUCCESS AS ORPHAN MEDICINES COME OF AGE 

IN 2018, BOTH THE AMERICAN FDA and the European 

Medicines Agency approved a greater number of 

new medicines for rare diseases than for mainstream 

conditions for the first time. The dream of 

making more medicines available for patients with 

very rare diseases, started decades ago with the US 

Orphan Drugs Act and the EU Orphan Regulation, 

has succeeded. 

Although there remains huge untreated and 

unmet need, more patients with rare diseases 

have pharmacotherapies available, and there are 

a growing number of disease-focussed registries, 

increasing public and policy maker awareness, 

and significant R&D investment in pharmacotherapies 

and in digital technologies to support 

trials and treatment. However, for the pharmaceutical 

companies behind them, not just bringing 

orphan medicines to approval, but launching 

orphan medicines excellently will become even 

more challenging and important over the next 5 

years. 

A new frontier of challenge faces orphan 

medicines companies as the gap between orphan 

medicines and mainstream specialty products 

narrows. To understand how to succeed in 

launching an orphan medicine in the coming 

years, companies must learn from past launches 

and apply an orphan medicines-focused Launch 

Excellence framework for success. 

Huge advances in therapies are enormously 

promising, but even though the total sales of 

individual Orphan Medicines are mostly modest, 

payer concern on costs has risen, and with it the 

number of negative market access outcomes. 

Orphan medicines companies must not only get 

an optimal label, they must successfully address 

market access in a more challenging environment, 

with the right data, stakeholder relationships, 

insight and flexibility. 

Orphan Medicines companies face substantial 

challenges of patient identification and recruitment 

for clinical trials, and support on the path 

to effective treatment, sometimes even when 

a product is available and budget is agreed. 

Patients suffering from rare diseases are likely 

to be geographically spread, and in many cases 

may have experienced mis-diagnosis and lack of 

awareness of their symptoms which means that 

they can spend an average of 4.8 years presenting 

symptoms before an accurate diagnosis is made. 

Clinical trials for rare disease patients can 

be hampered by slow recruitment due to slow 

diagnosis, or due to the inability of patients to 

reach scarce treatment centres. More effective 

use of Human Data Science to understand and 

identify patients using real world, genomic and 

other information, will underpin the next step in 

Orphan Medicine evolution. 

TO READ THE full whitepaper on this topic and to 

learn more about IQVIA and our presence in the 

Nordics, visit www.iqvia.com. NLS 

FACTS IQVIA 

IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) is a 

leading global provider 

of advanced analytics, 

technology solutions 

and contract research 

services to the life sciences 

industry dedicated 

to delivering actionable 

insights. 

IQVIA is a leading authority 

on Launch Excellence, 

publishing a white paper on 

global Launch Excellence 

every two years since 2007, 

and establishing many key 

concepts used to manage 

pharmaceutical launches, 

including the importance 

of the six-month window. 

IQVIA has also published 

widely on specific launch 

issues, including launch 

and multichannel, medical 

affairs, emerging markets 

and orphan medicines.


SCIENCE ARTICLE Q3 2019 

OXYCODONE 

OXYCODONE HYDROCHLORIDE 

IS PART OF A GROUP OF DRUGS 

KNOWN AS OPIOIDS. 

OXYCODONE IS MORE 

COMMONLY PRESCRIBED BY 

DOCTORS TO RELIEVE 

MODERATE TO SEVERE PAIN. 

OXYCODONE COMES IN A 

NUMBER OF FORMS INCLUDING 

CAPSULES, TABLETS, LIQUID AND 

SUPPOSITORIES. IT ALSO COMES 

IN A VARIOUS OF STRENGTHS. 

THE UNITED STATES HAD MORE 

THAN 200 000 DEATHS IN 1999- 

2016 FROM PRESCRIPTION 

OPIOID-RELATED OVERDOSES.

PHOTO AKSEL K.HENRIKEN 

Ashley Muller 

REFERENCE 

MULLER AE, CLAUSEN T, SJØGREN P, 

ODSBU I, SKURTVEIT S. PRESCRIBED 

OPIOID ANALGESIC USE DEVELOP- 

MENTS IN THREE NORDIC COUNTRIES, 

2006–2017. SCAN J PAIN. 

at the Norwegian 

Institute of Public Health, is aware of the risks of offering 

opioids for chronic, noncancer pain. She is American and knows 

that the United States had more than 200 000 deaths in 1999 – 2016 

from prescription opioid-related overdoses. 

Muller recently published work on opioid prescribing that 

she did at the Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, 

University of Oslo, with collaborators at the University of 

Copenhagen and Karolinska Institutet. 

Denmark, but lower mean doses, except for oxycodone. Sweden 

had the lowest mean oxycodone doses but wider prescribing, 

to 3% of the population. 

Based on these and other findings, Muller says, ”People 

in public health are worried.” No one is sure of the reason 

for the prescribing patterns. Oxycodone isn’t advertised in 

Europe and because of regulations, the cause doesn’t seem to 

be industry related, Muller says. However, the aging Nordic 

population means patients may be reporting more pain. 

The study confirms that Norway, Denmark, and Sweden do 

not have an opioid crisis like North America. However, the 

report contains troubling findings. 

”The biggest concern,” Muller says, ”is that oxycodone 

use increased in all three countries.” Oxycodone is a potent 

opioid drug linked to the American overdose epidemic. Other 

research shows increasing deaths in Norway and Sweden 

related to the drug. 

Muller and colleagues analyzed publicly available data 

from Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish prescription drug 

registries. The data were for 2006–2017 and an impressive 21 

million people. For each year, the researchers looked at opioid 

prevalence, meaning the percent of the population with at 

least one dispensed opioid drug. 

The countries had different prescribing patterns. Norway 

had consistently higher opioid prevalence than Sweden and 

Muller and a collaborator are now analyzing data from 

Norway on people aged 50-80 years. Older people are also 

receiving increasing amounts of opioids, they find. In general, 

Muller says, ”Opioids are important for people with acute 

pain, for example after operations.” One factor in rising 

opioid use might be that short-term prescriptions turn into 

long-term use. However, many studies show that opioids are 

not effective for chronic pain. 

A bright spot is that Nordic health officials, clinical 

leaders, and policymakers have an excellent resource – the 

national prescription drug registries – to help prevent a U.S.- 

type opioid problem. Muller says the drug data she used in her 

study were easy to use and high quality. Some patients have 

already developed a use disorder, though, and here’s where the 

life science industry might help. Muller says: ”There’s room 

for innovation in ways to help with addiction.” NLS

BUSINESS 

PRESENTATION 

MILTENYIBIOTEC.SE 

American politician Anna Eshoo once described innovation as the calling card of 

the future. With that in mind, a good case could be made for listing the Nordic region 

as the address on that card. The cutting-edge biomedical research that takes place 

in its plethora of prominent institutions and renowned biotech firms attests to that. 

Although not a native Scandinavian firm, Miltenyi Biotec sits comfortably nestled in 

arguably the heart of all that activity, Lund. 

FROM ITS FOUNDATION, Miltenyi Biotec has 

focused on thinking differently, whether 

through pushing forward new frontiers or 

simply seeing minor adjustments to existing 

processes. Often, this has led the multidisciplinary 

team around the founder to create 

products for previously unthought of applications. 

Based on the then revolutionary MACS ® 

Technology, the firm’s 14,000+ products 

were, and continue to be, created by its 475 

dedicated R&D employees, supported by a 

sales force and customer service department 

well-known for their scientific literacy and 

helpful counsel. Such an output of innovation 

is possible through continual interaction 

and collaboration with the scientific 

community, reflecting Miltenyi Biotec’s fundamental 

belief that new ideas are created by the 

The MACSQuant Tyto Sorter makes 

use of very low–pressure filtered air 

for exceptionally gentle cell treatment, 

resulting in never-before-seen 

viability and functionality in a sterile, 

GMP-compliant, fully closed setup. 

sharing of experiences between some of the 

world’s most brilliant and creative minds. 

More recently, this deep-rooted understanding 

of, and appreciation for, the real-life 

challenges faced in the research environment 

led to one of our most revolutionary products 

yet; the MACSQuant ® Tyto ® Sorter. Traditional 

cell-sorting techniques are droplet-based, which 

means precious cell samples are subjected to 

high pressures, decompression, and electrical 

charges. Not only can all of these factors 

potentially impact on the viability and functionality 

of the cell population of interest, 

the droplet method can lead to the formation 

of biohazardous aerosols, endangering the 

researcher and requiring both additional time 

and capital to offset. Finally, sample-to-sample 

carry-over and external contamination are 

always of concern in traditional cell sorting, 

necessitating laborious cleaning protocols. 

The MACSQuant ® Tyto ® Sorter eliminates 

all of these concerns. Samples are kept 

in sterile, disposable, fully closed cartridges, 

which means no risk of contamination of any 

kind, and no chance of aerosol and droplet 

formation. 

Since all cell sorting takes place exclusively 

within the disposable cartridge, no cleaning 

is required either. Instead, a microchip at the 

bottom of the cartridge enables high-speed, 

fluorescence-based sorting via the world’s 

fastest mechanical sort valve into either the 

positive or the negative collection chambers. 

Cells to be sorted are driven through this system 

by very low-pressure filtered air without the 

need for decompression or the application of 

a charge. This exceptionally gentle cell treatment 

results in never-before-seen viability 

and functionality of isolated cell populations, 

which in turn means more conclusive and 

reproducible research findings. The entire 

process is plug-and-play, requiring minimal 

operator training, and nine times less 

hands-on time with the instrument in total 

compared with conventional droplet-based 

cell sorters. 

But such an innovative new technology 

doesn’t just improve existing processes with 

added convenience; it opens up entirely new 

applications. For example, because cell sorting 

takes place entirely within the closed system 

of the MACSQuant ® Tyto ® Cartridge, cells 

remain sterile. And since there is no sheath 

fluid, using the system with MACS ® GMP 

Tyto Consumables means the cells only ever 

come into contact with MACS ® GMP products. 

This makes Miltenyi Biotec the first company 

ever to offer sterile, GMP-compliant multiparametric 

cell sorting in a fully closed setup, 

opening up entirely new possibilities in translational 

and clinical research settings. 

It is our belief that this sort of breakthrough 

concept is the result of an authentic adherence 

to the scientific mindset; to always 

question how things are done, and how they 

can be done better; through collaboration, 

and through the free and frank exchange of 

challenges, successes, and ideas. NLS 

MILTENYI BIOTEC NORDEN AB SCHEELEVÄGEN 17, 223 70 LUND, SWEDEN, +46 46 280 72 80, MACS@MILTENYIBIOTEC.SE

YOUR KEY TO PROCESS DEVELOPMENT 

AND CLINICAL MANUFACTURING 

Our services provide cost effective process development and manufacturing of your 

GMP clinical trial material. We offer rapid technology transfer, scale-up development 

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BENCH TO CLINIC TO MARKET 

www.luinabio.com.au | email us at: enquiries@luinabio.com.au

Science Q&A. The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) has awarded postdoctoral fellowships 

to 16 talented researchers from the Nordic countries. The fellowships provide the recipients 

the opportunity to carry out research at some of the world’s best laboratories, which will 

hopefully boost their skills and strengthen their independent research careers. We asked 

four of them about their research and about being a young scientist today. 

TEXT b y M A L I N O T M A N I P H O T O b y N N F 


SCIENCE 

YOUNG 

TALENT 

CEMRE MANAV PERFORMS BASELINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN RNA 

PROCESSING THAT PAVES THE WAY FOR NEW TREATMENTS OF MANY 

DISEASES, SUCH AS HEART FAILURE, AS WELL AS FOR THERAPEUTIC 

PROCESSES, FOR EXAMPLE GENE SILENCING.

PHARMACOVIGILANCE 

FACTS 

MANAV’S PROJECT 

I HAVE 

FOUND my 

CALLING 

was one of the recipients of the Novo 

Nordisk Foundation’s postdoctoral fellowships 2019 for research 

abroad in the field of Bioscience and Basic Biomedicine. Cemre 

Manav will receive DKK 3,998,207 over four years. 

What does this grant mean to you and your research? 

“I have been studying and working as a researcher in Aarhus/ 

Copenhagen for the last six years. I have always appreciated the work 

ethics here in Denmark. There are also so many good opportunities for 

scientists when it comes to networking and funding. That is why I would like to contribute 

to the Danish research environment and develop my life and career here in 

Denmark. For a postdoc, having your own funding is an amazing thing. Having huge funding, 

such as the NNF funding, is a blessing for me because it is very, very convenient and it helps 

me come back to Denmark, which is just perfect for me. 

For my research career I am very certain that this postdoc will improve my skills tremendously. 

I will be working with very brilliant people who contribute to the area amazingly and 

some of whom are Nobel Laureates. Being in such a work environment will help me become 

an independent and good scientist.” 

Where will you conduct your postdoc? 

Anna-Leena Saarela is an expert in pharmacovigilance 

and she sees it as a privilege 

to work in the front line of this fast developing 

environment for the benefit of patient safety. 

“I will be working at the Medical Research Council – Laboratory of Molecular Biology 

(MRC-LMB) in Cambridge, England, with the group of Lori Passmore.” 

What applications could your research have? 

“My research focuses on RNA processing. This is directly related to health diseases, 

bone marrow diseases and gene expression. If we can control this process, we can control 

which genes are expressed. This means that if we know a specific gene is causing a specific 

disease, we can just stop that gene from being translated from the very beginning.” 

What is the best thing about being a scientist TEXT and b y about M A Lyour I N area O T Mof Aresearch? 

N I 

TITLE: Cryo-electron 

microscopy and functional 

studies of targeted 

deadenylation 

complex: Insights into 

mRNA deadenylation 

at the molecular level 

mRNA turnover is a 

fundamental aspect 

of gene regulation. In 

the nucleus, eukaryotic 

mRNAs are polyadenylated 

at the 3’-end 

[poly(A) tail] and the 

poly(A) tail is crucial for 

gene regulation. In the 

cytoplasm, mRNAs are 

de-adenylated, where 

the length of the 

poly(A) tail is gradually 

shortened. After the 

poly(A) tail is removed, 

the mRNA is degraded, 

which makes 

deadenylation a critical 

step in determining 

the lifetime of mRNAs. 

The tail is protected by 

Pab1 and shortened by 

Ccr4-Not. This process 

is further regulated 

by the RNA-binding 

protein tristetraprolin, 

promoting targeted 

deadenylation. 

Understanding how 

these proteins work in 

such a large assembly 

will reveal in greater 

detail how mRNAs 

are regulated through 

“The best thing is the idea of helping people! What we do is very baseline scientific research, 

which paves the way for the clinical researchers to develop treatments for diseases such as 

infections, heart failure etc. Knowing that I might be helping humanity feels amazing and 

it is the driving force for me to just keep working and learning.” 

their 3′-end. This will 

ANNA-LEENA Do you have SAARELA any advice for IS students today working out there as a wanting to pursue “A typical a career day at work in varies depending on lay the stage groundwork of the projects for 

Pharmacovigilance science? Expert at Crown CRO, a Finnish CRO with Crown CRO PV are working on at the time. the Right treatment now of I am many involved 

offices in “It the might Nordic feel and overwhelming Baltic area and with tiring. operations Their lab mainly work will not always in developing yield good new results. Standard Operating Procedures diseases, such in close as heart collaboration 

look with for our a Quality reason Assurance department, while at the same time 

failure, as well as for 

in Europe. Most of She the is a time part we of get a team negative of pharmacovigilance results, but we never experts give up. Always 

therapeutic processes, 

and her and respons-ibilities look for a different cover way a wide of doing range it. of There tasks, is from always overall a way of getting planning the a results, controlled it’s change to our electronic for example safety database, gene Argus 

maintenance just a matter and development of hard work of and the reading company’s what pharmacovigilance 

other people are doing. Safety, And always with the discuss system vendor.” silencing. 

(PV) your system, studies to management with other people, and coordination see what they of PV think projects about and it. 

tasks, and daily PV operations, such as safety case processing. 

Science is A fun!” clinical trial in the start-up phase is also keeping Saarela busy 

as she and her colleagues are setting up the 

“In this role, no day is the same as the previous one,” she says. 


SCIENCE 

YOUNG 

TALENT

INTERVIEW LIDDS 

CAGLA SAHIN’S RESEARCH focuses on expanding our knowledge of how the human 

memory is formed and stored. She will investigate molecular interactions inside 

cellular structures formed by memory proteins and her findings might lead to a 

better understanding of the relationship between normal brain function and 

disease. 

FACTS 

SAHIN’S PROJECT 

was one of the recipients of 

the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s 

postdoctoral fellowships 

2019 for research 

abroad in the field of 

Bioscience and Basic Biomedicine. 

Cagla Sahin will 

receive DKK 3,640,073 over four years. 

What does this grant mean to you and 

your research? 

”Thanks to the NNF grant, I get to spend 

three years at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 

where I will deepen my knowledge 

of mass spectrometry (MS), a really cool and 

advanced technique that enables the measurement 

of molecular weights, leading to insight 

of complex molecular assemblies. In particular 

I will use native MS and hydrogen-deuterium 

exchange MS to understand how molecular 

interactions and structural and conformational 

changes affect the function of amyloid-like proteins. 

This has never been done before, and I’m 

really looking forward to it! It is really exciting to 

get my own funding that supports my ideas and 

research, and gives me the opportunity to grow as 

a scientist this early in my career.” 

Where will you conduct your post-doc? 

”The first three years I will be doing my 

postdoctoral research at the department of 

Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at the 

Karolinska Institutet, in the group of Assistant 

Professor Michael Landreh and Professor Sir 

David Lane. Thereafter and for the last year 

of the project, I will join the group of Associate 

professor Kaare Teilum at the department of 

Biology at Copenhagen University, where 

another technique, nuclear magnetic resonance 

(NMR), will be used for structural characterization 

of amyloid-like proteins.” 


”My research qualifies as basic science and 

focuses on expanding the knowledge of how the 

human memory is formed and stored. Specifically, 

I will investigate molecular interactions inside 

cellular structures formed by what are known 

as memory proteins, using native and hydrogendeuterium 

exchange MS. At the same time, 

studying such molecular interactions may lead to 

a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms 

involved in neurodegenerative diseases, 

such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and even 

cancer. Furthermore, this technique can be 

applied to understand molecular interactions in 

many other contexts, ranging from basic science 

to drug development and to protein formulation 

in industry.” 

What is the best thing about being a scientist 

and about your area of research? 

”In general I love science and being a scientist. 

I like to develop new methods and protocols 

that can help shed light on a problem in a new 

way. Once you make any discovery – even tiny 

findings – they are a part of a bigger question, and 

I just find it thrilling and exciting to understand 

the everyday life – in nature, health and disease.” 

Do you have any advice for students out 

there wanting to pursue a career in science? 

”If I were to give some general advice, one 

aspect would be to remember the life outside the 

science world, and really focus on finding that 

balance – it will make the road of the scientific 

career easier and more fun. Another piece of 

advice is to talk with the people in your network; 

supervisors, fellow-students, colleagues, nonscientist 

friends. Talking with others can open up 

your perspectives, whether it is regarding your 

career, for feedback on your development as a 

scientist/colleague/friend, or for a specific problem 

related to an experimental setup. Finally, find 

a good balance of optimism and realism. One will 

(most often) meet a lot of failure, before achieving 

that one positive result, which others might 

not even find as exciting as you do. Prepare your 

self by lowering your expectations, while striving 

for the best.” NLS 

FACTS 

LIDDS 

TITLE: The superstructural 

biology 

of RNA-binding 

amyloid-like proteins 

in neurodegeneration 

and memory 

formation 

Inside cells, proteins 

are busy fulfilling specific 

tasks by binding 

to other molecules, 

and wrong interactions 

can LIDDS lead AB to disease. 

When develops the brain injectable 

information, drugs for 

stores 

certain cancer proteins and selfassemble 

diseases together based 

other 

with other on a molecules NanoZolid 

into large technology. scaffolds Nanothat 

bind Zolid copies helps of solve 

different some genes. of the main 

These problems scaffolds with 

resemble the protein way drugs 

assemblies work called in the body 

“amyloid” and that which are affect a 

hallmark patient of diseases quality of 

such as life. Alzheimer’s. NanoZolid 

Despite enables being the controlled, 

one protein long-term 

similar, 

family forms and personalized 

“good” release struc- 

of 

functionaltures, 

and drugs the for other up 

pathogenic, to six months. “bad” 

ones. Sahin NanoZolid will use can 

mass spectrometry, be combined a 

technique with that traditional allows 

her to small weigh molecules, proteins, 

and nuclear as well magnetic as with 

resonance larger spectro- molecules. 

scopy that In March gives this 

structural year information, the United 

to follow States their Patent interactions 

to Trademark understand Office 

and 

what makes issued protein a Notice of 

assemblies Allowance in the for the 

brain bad NanoZolid or good. technology 

parts patent. of 

Which 

the proteins The same bind patent 

together? was Can approved we 

interfere by with the European these 

interactions? Patent Answering 

these 2018. questions With this 

Office in 

will help new us US to better patent, 

understand the NanoZolid the relationship 

technology between will 

normal be brain protected function until 

and disease. 2037 in both Europe 

and the US. 



71

SCIENCE 

YOUNG 

TALENT 

Kaja Plucinska’s research focuses on the brown and beige fat secretome 

and the discovery of novel endocrine factors regulating insulin 

sensitivity and energy balance. Her findings might lead to new therapeutic 

strategies to combat insulin resistance in Type 2 Diabetes.

was one of the recipients of the 

Novo Nordisk Foundation’s 

postdoctoral fellowships 2019 

for research abroad in the field 

of Endocrinology & Metabolism. 

Plucinska will receive DKK 3,985,865 over 

four years. 



“Primarily, it tells me that the research we 

proposed is novel and has a true potential to 

uncover previously unknown and clinically relevant 

biology within metabolism and (brown 

fat) endocrinology. This grant will allow me to 

explore a new research environment abroad 

and work alongside top tier scientists in the 

field to develop new thinking strategies and use 

cutting-edge technology, e.g. click-chemistry 

and gene editing in vivo. I am a senior postdoc 

at Copenhagen University (UCPH), so this International 

& Homecoming (3+1 years) NNF 

grant will hopefully allow me to establish my 

FACTS 

I HAVE 

FOUND my 

CALLING 

own research group in Denmark, or another 

European country in 2024.” 

Where will you conduct your postdoc? 

“I will be based at the Rockefeller University, 

NYC (US) in the Laboratory of Molecular 

Metabolism led by Asst. Prof. Paul Cohen for 

the initial three years of the fellowship, and will 

return to Denmark for my fourth year, at the 

NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research 

(CBMR). During this fellowship, I will be using 

what is called the ‘bio-orthogonal non-canonical 

amino-acid tagging’ (BONCAT) technique 

These areas of research are brand new in the 

Anna-Leena Saarela 

field, and 

is 

I feel 

an 

lucky 

expert 

to be able to embark 

in pharmaon 

it 

with this fellowship.” 

covigilance and she sees it as a privilege 

Do you have any advice to students 

to work in the front out there line wanting of this to pursue fast a career developing 

science? 

environment for the “Think benefit ahead of your of next patient steps, know safety. 

recently employed by the Cohen Lab to label 

and trace newly synthesized proteins released 

from fat in order to establish: why is burning 

fat through cold exposure (e.g. 5ºC) healthy for 

us? Does brown fat secrete (yet unidentified) 

We and others suggested that brown fat 

may produce potent circulating hormones, 

which have the potential of improving insulin 

sensitivity, but the identity of these hormones 

remains unknown. We recently discovered a 

number of such circulating factors and propose 

to identify their sites of actions and delineate 

their potential against metabolic disorder in 

mice to hopefully open new therapeutic strategies 

to combat insulin resistance in PHARMACOVIGILANCE T2D.” 

What is the best thing about being a 

scientist and about your area of research? 

“As an academic, I am primarily fascinated 

by how much there is to be discovered in biology 

in order to understand how we function 

and adapt to the environment. Since 2010, 

I have been pursuing basic disease-oriented 

research and developed a particular interest in 

normal physiology and pathophysiology, such 

as metabolic disease. The biggest ‘kick’ for me 

in science is the ability to pose a hypothesis 

and figure out the best ways to tackle it. The 

outcome is always exciting; it gives you a lead 

and it is broadening knowledge. 

The best thing about my current research 

area is that brown fat was only discovered in 

adult humans a decade ago (2009), and despite 

enormous research efforts, still little is known 

about its endocrine function. It burns calories 

and defends core body temperature during 

cold, but is it, similarly to white fat, also an 

endocrine organ? Does it crosstalk with other 

tissues such as brain, muscle and liver to orchestrate 

whole body metabolic homeostasis? 

PLUCINSKA´S 

PROJECT 

TITLE: Brown 

and beige fat 

secretome – 

discovery and 

characterization 

of novel endocrine 

factors regulating 

insulin 

sensitivity and 

energy balance 

in vivo 

Obesity, a major 

cause of T2D, 

is linked with 

many health 

complications. 

Fat tissue plays 

a fundamental 

role in T2D development, 

as its 

functions to 

store excess calories 

(white fat) 

or burn them 

during ‘thermogenesis’ 

(brown 

fat) become 

impaired. These 

events give rise 

to ‘insulin resistance’, 

a condition 

of poor 

sugar clearance 

from blood. 

Recent data 

suggest that 

brown fat may 

produce potent 

hormones, which regulate insulin sensitivity, 

circulating horand 

if so, can they become therapeutic targets what you want to do and make a feasible plan 

mones that regulate 

insulin sensitivity, 

but the 

against obesity or diabetes?” 

TEXT to bachieve y M Ait. L IThis N Orule T Mis Atrue N Ifor both lab work 

What applications could your research and career choices. Find your strengths and 

identity of these 

have? 

weaknesses – work on your ‘areas for improvement’ 

whilst using your strengths productively. mains unknown. 

hormones re- 

“Obesity, a major cause of Type 2 Diabetes 

(T2D), is linked with many health complications, 

as well as increased SAARELA mortality. IS today We know working as a it, find friends “A at typical work. Attend day at work conferences, varies depending on the factors stage was of the projects 

Establish your network and actively cultivate 

A number of 

such circulating 

ANNA-LEENA 

Pharmacovigilance that fat tissue plays Expert a fundamental at Crown CRO, role a Finnish the CRO with communicate Crown your discoveries, CRO PV are be working curious on at the time. Right recently now discovered. 

Their in close mole- 

collabora- 

I am involved 

offices development in the Nordic of and T2D, Baltic because area its and functions with operations to mainly about other people’s in developing work, new be a Standard team player. Operating Procedures 

in Europe. store excess She is a calories part of (white a team fat) of pharmacovigilance or burn them experts No-one has ever tion achieved with our a Quality ground-breaking Assurance department, cular while mechanisms 

and sites 

at the same time 

and her during respons-ibilities the process called cover a ‘thermogenesis’ 

wide range of tasks, from overall discovery on their planning own. a controlled Take initiative change and to our electronic safety database, Argus 

of action will 

maintenance (brown fat) and become development compromised, of the company’s giving rise pharmacovigilance never let go of Safety, your ambition. with the system If you vendor.” love 

now hopefully 

(PV) to system, what to is called management ‘insulin and resistance’, coordination a condition 

and of daily poor PV sugar operations, clearance such from as safety blood. case processing. switch jobs.” as NLSshe and her colleagues are setting up the 

of PV projects science, and you will A be clinical able to trial live in it. the If you start-up don’t, phase is also be keeping identified. Saarela busy 

tasks, 



73

SCIENCE 

YOUNG 

TALENT

SARAH MCGARRITY’S RESEARCH FOCUSES on endothelial cells, which are important 

for blood pressure and clotting, and her findings might give us a better understanding 

and lead to treatments for conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetic vascular 

damage and acute vascular problems due to shock. 

ARAH MCGARRITY, PHD, was one of 

the recipients of the Novo Nordisk 

Foundation’s postdoctoral 

fellowships 2019 for research 

abroad in the field of Endocrinology 

& Metabolism. McGarrity 

will receive DKK 3,992,447 

over four years. 



“This grant will provide me with the opportunity 

to continue to explore the links between endothelial 

cell function and metabolism. I will be 

able to work in a group that has expertise in vascular 

nitric oxide production and reactive oxygen 

species scavenging, and their links to vascular 

health. The knowledge I gain and the techniques 

that I learn will enable me to build on a project 

about endothelial metabolism that I have begun 

at the University of Iceland in collaboration with 

a clinical group at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. 

Also working in a new research environment, 

particularly one as active and prestigious as 

Harvard Medical School, will allow me to explore 

a broad range of scientific ideas and how 

to plan, communicate and improve my research 

career. The final year of the grant will allow me 

to bring the techniques I learn at Harvard back 

to the University of Iceland, where I will also 

continue to grow the collaboration with Rigshospitalet.” 

Where will you carry out your post-doc? 

“For the first three years I will carry out 

research at Harvard Medical School, under the 

supervision of William Oldham and Joseph 

Loscalzo. I will be able to learn from their expertise 

in vascular biology, particularly redox biology 

in the vasculature. Professor Loscalzo is 

a leader in the development of the application 

of systems biology to clinical problems in the 

form of network medicine. In my final year I will 

return to the University of Iceland in Reykjavík 

where I will continue to work in Óttar Rolfsson’s 

group as part of the Biomedical Centre and the 

Centre for Systems Biology there.” 


“Endothelial cells line blood vessels and are 

important to control blood pressure and clotting. 

They are covered by a proteoglycan-rich layer, 

the endothelial glycocalyx, which is important to 

this control. This layer houses enzymes that produce 

nitric oxide (which controls blood pressure) 

and remove damaging reactive oxygen species 

(ROS). My research investigates the effects of 

various stimuli on the glycocalyx layer covering 

vascular endothelial cells and how this, in turn, 

affects the activities of enzymes that are housed 

in this layer. The enzymes are NO forming and 

ROS scavenging enzymes that are important to 

cardiovascular health, both in the long term and 

during acute conditions such as trauma. 

By better understanding how the glycocalyx 

and its enzymes are affected by inflammatory 

and other stimuli I hope that we will be able to 

better understand and eventually treat conditions 

including cardiovascular disease, diabetic 

vascular damage and acute vascular problems 

due to shock.” 

What is the best thing about being a 

scientist and about your area of research? 

“I am fascinated by the process of investigation, 

of finding out about how things, endothelial 

cells in this case, work; how they break and how 

they affect other things. My job as a scientist 

enables me to pursue these investigations and 

to work with other people to apply any findings 

to create useful solutions to human health 

problems. As a scientist each day presents new 

challenges so my job is always interesting and 

varied.” 

Do you have any advice to students out 

there wanting to pursue a career in science? 

“Students who would like to pursue a research 

career should explore as wide a range of science 

as they can in order to find a research area that 

stimulates them. I have found that my research 

career has opened up a range of life experiences 

to me but also presents challenges that can sometimes 

be frustrating; being interested in my work 

has made the challenges worthwhile.” NLS 

FACTS 

MCGARRITY’S PROJECT 

TITLE: The effect of 

the endothelial glycoclayx 

on superoxide 

dismutase, glutathione 

peroxidase and 

nitric oxide synthase 

activities during 

stimulation 

Endothelial cells (EC) 

line blood vessels 

and are important 

to control blood 

pressure and clotting. 

ECs are covered by 

a proteoglycan-rich 

layer, the endothelial 

glycocalyx (EGL), 

which is important to 

this control. The EGL 

houses enzymes that 

produce nitric oxide 

(which controls blood 

pressure) and remove 

damaging reactive 

oxygen species (ROS). 

Hyperglycemia, inflammation, 

blood flow and 

adrenal hyperactivity 

affect the EGL and are 

known to contribute to 

cardiovascular disease 

development. 

This fellowship will 

try to better understand 

the mechanisms that link 

changes in the makeup 

of the EGL, after 

interventions in glucose 

levels, adrenaline and 

blood flow, with the 

activity of EGL-housed 

enzymes to better understand 

vascular health 

and disease. 

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PHOTO PÅL K SELBO 

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05 

Timo Koskela, Eero 

Väyrynen, Ilkka Juuso 

and Jukka Kortelainen 

are devloping AI tools 

for the analysis of brain 

function in intensive 

care. 


Coripharma has taken 

the positive lessons 

learned from its country’s 

excellence in pharma 

manufacturing and 

adds a competitive edge 

to this solid heritage. 


PCI Biotech in Oslo is 

refining three different 

applications for this 

technology that could 

make differences in 

cancer treatments and 

vaccine effectiveness. 


Engineering students 

Casper Slots and Martin 

Bonde Jensen turned 

their undergraduate 

research into an Odense 

medical device startup 

company, Particle3D. 


Fueled by his passion 

for biotechnology, 

marketing and facilitating 

change, Erik 

Gatenholm co-founded 

the world’s first bioink 

company. 



A QUARTET WITH A

Timo Koskela, Eero Väyrynen, 

Ilkka Juuso and Jukka Kortelainen 

Dr Jukka Kortelainen was doing 

his residency at the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology 

at Oulu University Hospital. His work included research with 

intensive care patients and he realized how little we knew 

about the brain function of these patients. Brain monitoring 

has been complicated and not well-suited to the intensive care 

area where clinical evaluation might be difficult due to the 

disease, or sedation, and where no reliable laboratory tests are 

available to measure brain function. 

In addition, the information provided by imaging, such 

as CT or MRI, is also limited and transferring the patient for 

these examinations is time consuming and laborious. One of 

the few and best ways to measure brain function in an intensive 

care unit is electroencephalogram (EEG), but its application 

here is limited. One reason is the practical difficulties in 

carrying out the measurement, but this part of the problem is 

about to be solved as several easy-to-setup solutions suitable 

for intensive care with minimal training have entered the market. 

Another reason is that intensive care personnel usually are 

inexperienced in interpreting the EEG, and getting an opinion 

from an EEG expert might be difficult or impossible, leading 

to compromised treatment of the patient. 

Together with his colleague, Eero Väyrynen, an artificial 

intelligence specialist also from the University of Oulu, Kortelainen 

started to develop a solution to this problem. The goal 

was to create a technology that would provide EEG measurements 

in an easy-to-interpret form. 

The two researchers carried out a pilot study with comatose 

cardiac arrest patients, in collaboration with Oulu University 

Hospital. They found that specific EEG features revealed 

healthy brain function despite the patients being unconscious 

and sedated.

The long-term goal for Cerenion is 

to make C-Trend a globally adopted 

solution for continuous brain 

monitoring in intensive care 

the spark for an invention that was 

further investigated in a commercially-oriented research project, called 

BrainICU, which was funded by Business Finland (at that time, Tekes). 

“During this project it became evident that there is a clear 

end-user-driven need for a practical brain monitoring solution in 

the intensive care environment. The invention also raised a strong 

interest in the companies providing equipment for intensive care. 

These two things, together with our strong belief in our unique 

technology and our team, formed the basis for the decision to 

establish Cerenion,” says Timo Koskela, CEO and co-founder of 

Cerenion. 

The company’s patent-protected solution utilizes artificial 

intelligence to compress the complex EEG signal into a single 

parameter, C-Trend, revealing the status of the brain. This easyto-interpret 

parameter (ranging from 0 to 100) helps doctors in 

utilizing EEG in their everyday work to provide the best possible 

care to the patients. 

All four co-founders of Cerenion have research experience from 

the University of Oulu, and some of them have spent 

almost two decades at the university, so in many ways the 

founding of Cerenion was a big but an exciting change, 

according to Koskela. 

“First of all, everything is now more dynamic. We 

have a lot of freedom to choose how we run the company 

and how we conduct our daily work. But we also have a greater responsibility 

for ourselves, our employees, our investors and other 

stakeholders that we do it well,” he says. 

Some of the co-founders possessed previous entrepreneurial 

experience, for example from the company MetaVisual, founded 

in 2005. MetaVisual still exists and provides centralized, full-stack 

online publishing solutions to SMEs, organizations and discerning 

private customers. “This company has provided us with good 

practical experience in running a small company. Some of the 

founders have also worked for some other startup companies for 

short periods of time,” says Koskela. 

Nonetheless he says that the learning curve has been very steep 

over the past two years. “But this has mainly been a positive thing, 

if you take the right attitude. Of course, a small team is also much 

more flexible, so implementing a change is much faster (and easier) 

compared to the university. I also feel very privileged that we have 

been given a chance to build the company from scratch, including 

the team, the company culture and the processes. You can experience 

some of this at the university, but not all of it.” 

Jukka Kortelainen is still working half-time at the university 

as an academic research fellow, so he is still involved in 

research on a daily basis. The co-founders also conduct 

research at Cerenion,but they are currently commercializing 

their first product, so research has not been the highest 

priority, but will have more emphasis in the future, 

according to Koskela.

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, 

Founding a company of course teaches you a lot and you gain 

important insights. Timo Koskela advises that if you are planning 

to spin-out from a university, start the negotiations for the 

IPR transfer in time. 

“It may be that your home university does not have a clear 

process for the IPR transfer, or you may enter into difficult 

negotiations about the valuation of your company (which affects 

the percentage of shares the university will get once the IPR is 

transferred, and further, may affect the investors’ interest in your 

company), and therefore it may take a lot of time – reserve at least 

half a year. Luckily for us, the IPR transfer from the University of 

Oulu was rather smooth.” 

Also, try to attract the interest of several potential VCs, angels, 

etc., to create some healthy competition, is Koskela’s advice. This 

may help optimizing your valuation and speeding up the process 

in general. “If you are raising your first funding round, I would recommend 

that you reserve 6 to 12 months’ time depending on the 

maturity of your investor materials (business plan etc.) and your 

current connections with the VCs, angels, etc.,” he advises. 

When you draft your roadmap, Koskela would also recommend 

leaving room for delays. It is always better to “under-promise” 

and then “over-deliver” than be delayed. 

Koskela says he thinks Finland provides good conditions for 

a high-tech medical start-up when you apply for the seed funding. 

However, the challenge is that it takes a lot of time and effort 

to develop a medical device and bring it to the market due to all 

standards and regulations to be followed, which are of course 

definitely needed. 

“Therefore, I believe that the seed funding is rarely enough 

for the commercialization of a medical invention, and therefore 

typically another funding round (late seed/pre-A) is required. This 

is much more difficult to get, as you do not yet have any revenue, 

and consequently any proof that the upcoming product will actually 

sell,” he says. 

Cerenion’s solution utilizes AI to compress 

the complex EEG signal into a single parameter, 

revealing the status of the brain 

Another important aspect of founding a company is networking, 

he continues. “It is a must for every founder or co-founder. If 

people know you or know at least a (trusted) person who knows 

you, it is much easier to start discussions on collaboration or other 

business activities. Even in B2B, it is still people who make the 

deals.” 

Koskela also emphasizes the composition of the team. You 

must have all the essential pieces in place, or you need to recruit 

the missing talent and/or buy the services. “Also take good care of 

your team, both the co-founders and particularly the employees, 

because you have extremely talented and motivated people, but 

they are only a few and you cannot afford to lose any of them.” 

Koskela and his colleagues are currently finalizing their upcoming 

C-Trend software product and will soon start the certification 

process. The first C-Trend enabled EEG product is expected to be 

out on the European market this year. 

“Our long-term goal is to make C-Trend a globally 

adopted solution for continuous brain monitoring in 

intensive care. But before we get there, let’s enjoy the 

journey!” states Koskela. NLS

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84 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

Coripharma aims to take the 

positive learnings from Actavis, 

such as excellence in quality and 

customer service 

Iceland 

has proven successful in the field of R&D 

development and manufacturing of 

pharmaceuticals and generics. Invest in 

Iceland reports that investments in R&D 

manufacturing within the pharmaceutical 

industry are continuing to increase in 

the country. 

“As a result of all the infrastructure, 

as well as the knowledge that has been 

built over the past few years, there 

are unprecedented opportunities for 

strengthening and enhancing knowledge 

in the Icelandic biotech and pharmaceutical 

industries,” states Jakob Falur 

Garðarsson, Managing Director of 

Frumtok, the Icelandic Association 

of the Pharmaceutical Industry. 

New companies have also sprung 

from this excellence. One such example 

is Coripharma, a pharmaceutical 

manufacturer based in Hafnarfjordur, 

outside Reykjavik. 

“Our idea is to ensure the continuation 

of the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals 

in Iceland, and to do so with a 

competitive edge, based on the experience 

of the team, our strategic location 

and high quality of the site,” says Björn 

Aðalsteinsson, Director of Business 

Development at the company. 

The founding of Coripharma began with 

the acquisition of a production facility 

with a long and successful history. The 

plant was first built by Actavis and it 

played an important role in the growth 

story of the company when the business 

expanded from a local manufacturer 

in Iceland to one of the biggest generics 

players in Europe and the world. 

It was later acquired by Teva, as 

part of its global acquisition of Actavis’ 

generics business, and subjected to a 

planned closure in 2016. 

However, a group of local Icelandic 

investors and members of the management 

team of the plant and the commercial 

units came together with the aim of 

buying the facility and re-opening it. 

“In mid-2018 the team finalized the 

acquisition, after lengthy negotiations 

with Teva. The investors behind the 

project are a collection of private equity, 

including some former top managers of 

Actavis, as well as institutional Icelandic 

investors,” says Aðalsteinsson. 

During 2018 the new company managed 

to get its production facility up and running, 

it was re-inspected by the Icelandic 

Medicine Agency and production began. 

In addition, in 2019 Teva decided to 

divest its R&D site in Iceland. This site 

was adjacent to Corpiharma’s facility 

and the company saw the opportunity 

to invest – making the jump from a 

86 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

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pure contract manufacturing organization 

(CMO) to establishing its own R&D 

and selling its own developed products. 

“Now we are a fully-fledged CDMO. 

We offer our partners a full range of 

production of tablets and capsules at an 

internationally GMP approved site and 

we also offer our own range of in-house 

developed generic products, most of 

them coming off patent in the coming 

few years,” Aðalsteinsson says. 

The majority of the team behind 

Coripharma have previously worked at 

Actavis, being part of a journey where 

they have grown and evolved with a 

company growing from a small local 

entity to be a part of a multi-national 

organization. 

“We aim to take the positive learnings, 

such as excellence in quality and 

customer service, while avoiding the 

pitfalls of the big top-heavy corporate 

beasts that companies can grow into if 

left unchecked,” says Aðalsteinsson. 

“The contract manufacturing market 

is quite competitive today and to gain 

an advantage you need to focus on what 

you are good at,” continues Aðalsteinsson. 

“Our strength lies in our ability to 

offer high customer service, quick turnaround 

times and good cost of goods for 

the medium sized products. We are not 

trying to compete with companies offering 

billions of tablets but instead to offer 

production and packaging to clients that 

need flexibility and quality.” 

“Official support is very limited,” 

he continues, “But the local investment 

environment in Iceland has been very 

receptive of our project and funding the 

company has gone very well. All commercialization 

is done the “old school” 

way – knocking on doors – beginning 

with those we knew from previous jobs 

and cold-calling. Participating in trade 

events has also generated good results.” 

“The long-term plans for Coripharma 

are to bring the R&D projects to market 

and build a future on their own in-house 

developed products, while continuing to 

build a strong CMO operation which 

will serve as an important revenue generator,” 

says Aðalsteinsson. 

“We will also aim to work closely 

with selected development partners in 

order to maximize our portfolio reach. 

Going forward we are not planning to 

sell under our own brand directly to 

the market, but rather out-license our 

products to international customers.” 

As a final piece of advice to other 

Nordic life science entrepreneurs-to-be 

out there, Aðalsteinsson recommends 

to nurture your network and believe in 

your team! NLS 

Aðalsteinsson states that among the 

advantages of being located in Iceland 

is access to great employees. “We have 

been extremely fortunate in the fact 

that the pool of ex-Actavis workers has 

been deep enough to sustain our needs 

well, and people really have jumped at 

the opportunity to join our company 

on this journey.” 

Another advantage, he says, is the 

green energy they utilize for their operations. 

“Iceland is also located very 

strategically, close to both Europe and 

America, and being inside the European 

Economic Area makes us a natural 

EU-GMP site.” 

Coripharma has been fortunate in 

the fact that the pool of ex-Actavis 

workers has been deep enough to 

sustain their needs well 

88 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

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91

Per Walday, CEO, PCI Biotech

photochemical internalization 

(PCI) technology, an intracellular 

delivery method, comes in. Norwegian 

biopharmaceutical company PCI Biotech 

AS in Oslo is refining three different applications 

for this technology that could make 

differences in cancer treatments and vaccine 

effectiveness. 

“We are on the cusp of a revolution right now; the merger of 

information technology and biotechnology,” according to Dr. Per 

Walday, PhD, PCI Biotech’s CEO. “When you get the combination 

of the two, it is going to open up so many new possibilities that it is 

difficult to imagine the consequences.” 

BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY IN DIFFERENT WAYS 

Per Walday, 58, joined PCI Biotech in 2008, bringing with him 

more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology field. Prior 

to joining PCI Biotech, Walday served as the Global Head of 

project management at GE Healthcare and in management positions 

at Nycomed Imaging/ Amersham Health. Early in his career 

he worked for the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, 

researching potential treatments against nerve gas poisoning. 

A celebrity marine explorer and conservationist and scuba 

diving were Walday’s primary inspirations to study 

biology. An avid scuba diver and admirer of wellknown 

French marine expert Jacques Cousteau, 

Walday moved from his native Sweden to study biology 

at the University of Oslo. There he decided the 

most compelling aspect of the field was the workings 

93 

of the human body and focused on physiology, in which he earned 

a doctorate. Walday also studied toxins and how they enter and 

effect cells. “I’ve been in the industry in different ways since then.” 

APPLICATIONS FOR THE PCI TECHNOLOGY 

Now PCI Biotech is working on three applications for the PCI 

technology, which was invented at Oslo University Hospital; using 

it to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy for certain cancers; 

enhancing the effectiveness of vaccines by improving cellular immune 

responses and in collaborations with companies interested in 

using the intracellular delivery method. 

PCI 

technology to treat bile duct cancer have 

been promising, Walday noted. “My goal 

is to make this company succeed and 

make sure we can deliver what we said we 

would.” 

In the coming years, Walday expects to 

see PCI technology in use across different 

disciplines. “It will be more like precision medicine, more than just 

a drug delivered for one indication.” 

THE CHALLENGE OF RECRUITING 

Among the challenges of starting a biotech company in 

Norway is having a small number of pharmaceutical and 

biotechnology companies with whom to work, because the 

main focus has been on other industries such as fishing and

PHOTO PÅL K SELBO 

ILLUSTRATION OF THE PCI PRINCIPLE: 

LEFT IMAGE: DRUG (ORANGE) TRAPPED IN ENDOSOMAL CAPSULES WITHIN CELLS 

RIGHT IMAGE: DRUG RELEASED INTO THE CELL CYTOSOL AFTER PCI TREATMENT 

oil and gas extraction. The small biotech industry base can make it 

difficult to fill key positions. 

“Finding an experienced chief medical officer in Norway is 

difficult,” Walday said. While interest nationally in the biotechnology 

field continues to grow, recruiting specialty investors to invest 

in Norwegian biotech, can also be difficult, he added. 

SUPPORT THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE 

Support from the Oslo Cancer Cluster has made a difference for 

PCI Biotech and other cancer focused biotech companies getting 

off the ground, according to Walday. Among the cluster’s 

initiatives are bringing small companies together for forums and 

networking and building an innovation park. Educating the public 

and government officials about the importance of the biotechnology 

industry is another initiative that is showing results. 

“Since I’ve been in the biotech startup area, over the past 10 years, 

things have changed dramatically,” Walday said. “They [people at the 

cluster and the pharmaceutical industry association] are influencing 

politicians; it is important for politicians to understand that there is 

very good research going on, and a lot of that can become technology 

that can be commercialized.The cluster has contributed well 

in making sure politicians understand that. The atmosphere 

has changed with improved interaction between healthcare 

providers, researchers and the industry.” 

are good for industry 

growth. “I think it [the industry outlook] 

is very positive,” said Walday. “The people in 

the Nordic countries are very well-educated, 

there is a highly-organized healthcare system 

with well-developed health registries and a 

lot of industry organized around life sciences. 

Denmark and Sweden have more of a history 

in biotechnology, but now Norway is getting more interested in the 

potential of this industry. Biotech companies need highly-competent 

and highly-educated people. There is a good supply here compared 

to many other countries and a growing need for this type of work.” 

AN OPEN ENVIRONMENT 

The advice Walday would pass on to biotech entrepreneurs is to 

have patience and persistence. 

“There will be a lot of ups and downs in what you are doing, so 

you have to have stamina. Make sure you have the right people; 

and not only the right people, but also the right competences. You 

need people who thrive with challenging work and want to make it 

happen. People who want it to succeed. Also ensure that 

you have team members who function well together, that 

you have an environment that is open and where you can 

share everything.” NLS 

94

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Currently, implants for 

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made of bone taken from 

the patient that must then 

grow back or from foreign 

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DENMARK 

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97 

PHOTO LINDA KASTRUP

- 

TEXT 

b y C H R I S T A C H I B A N A 

N 2015, Martin Bonde Jensen and Casper 

Slots were University of Southern Denmark 

engineering students with a smart research 

project. Today, they are cofounders and 

executives of Particle3D, moving the technology 

from their project to market. The 

company is developing medical implants that 

are 3D-printed from biomaterials similar to 

natural bone. 

”When Martin and I decided to write a bachelor’s thesis 

together,” Slots says, ”we thought 3D printing was exciting 

and we wanted to work on a real-life problem.” They 

developed their project with Professor Morten Ø. Andersen 

and Odense University Hospital surgeon Torben Thygesen, 

also Particle3D cofounders. 

98 

BUILDING A SOLID ORGANIZATION 

Already in 2015, prompted by the university, the team filed 

its first patent. Within a few years, Slots and Jensen earned 

master’s degrees, won the VentureCup pitch competition, 

receiving 100 000 DKK toward their startup, and got intense 

entrepreneurial training in the Accelerace incubator program. 

Particle3D is now funded by 5 million DKK from business 

angels and the early stage investor PreSeed Ventures. 

Jensen, 28 years old in 2018, was on the Forbes 30 under 

30 list for Europe Science and Healthcare. In March 2019, 

experienced executive Thea Wulff Olesen joined Particle3D 

as CEO. The company is still in ”very early days,” she says, 

”but we’re reviewing our strategy and looking at the best 

paths for us.” Her primary goal right now is building a solid 

organization based on the Particle3D technology. 

TAILORED, BONELIKE IMPLANTS 

Currently, implants for reconstructive surgery are made 

of bone taken from the patient that must then grow back 

or from foreign materials such as metal. Particle3D prints 

implants using a calcium phosphate-fatty acid bioink with 

a composition similar to bone. Experiments with stem cells 

show the implants support activities that should lead to their 

eventual integration into a patient’s body through normal, 

physiological bone remodeling. 

Slots explains that getting to the right technology took biological 

understanding and engineering instincts. The bone-like 

bioink they formulated is dense, like toothpaste, and has to be 

kept warm because it solidifies quickly. That required some 

technological hacking. ”We started with a cheap printer, 

like hobbyists use,” Slots says, ”and stationed a blow 

dryer in front to keep it at the right temperature.”

- 

Odense

- 

article3D now has a more advanced printer 

with specialized components. The company 

moved in 2017 from the university, 

which initially employed Jensen and Slots 

to develop their idea, to office and lab space 

in central Odense. Particle3D holds U.S. 

and European patents and are applying in 

South America and Asia, including India. 

The company is testing the implants in pigs, with results 

expected soon, and plans for clinical trials, if all goes well. 

Eventually, Jensen says, they envision making individually 

tailored implants for hospitals and surgical centers to use 

with patients having facial reconstruction because of cancer 

or accidents. 

LEARNING BY DOING 

Jensen and Slots barely have time to reflect on how 

they went from an idea to Particle3D in a few quick 

years. It was a learn-by-doing experience, in any case. Every 

process from registering the company to paying their own 

salaries was new. ”We’re engineers,” Jensen says. ”We didn’t 

have experience with starting or running a company.” 

onetheless, Olesen is impressed with 

what the entrepreneurs built. ”Martin 

and Casper did a great job of not 

rushing into things but figuring them 

out first,” she says. Although they are 

just four full-time employees now, Slots 

says an early lesson has been the importance 

of building a good team around your technology. 

Particle3D has benefitted from mentors and advisors they 

met through Accelerace, for example. ”You learn you can’t 

do everything yourself and you need experts,” Slots says. 

MAKING THIS IDEA FLY 

Both Slots and Jensen are committed to moving the company 

forward to market launch, although this career path is 

somewhat surprising to them. Both originally thought they 

would work in R&D, including getting engineering PhDs. 

Slots has a nursing degree and says, ”My perspective is, this 

is such a good cause. I’m first and foremost a nurse, drawn 

to technology and working on medical devices. I see how 

our company can help patients who have difficulties with 

cranial-facial reconstructions. Although they appreciate 

their surgeons, many have depression because they don’t 

recognize themselves in the mirror. I want to get a product 

on the market that helps patients improve their lives.” 

ensen says that he might someday go back 

to doing engineering labwork or he could 

launch another startup in the future based on 

his entrepreneurial experience with Particle- 

3D. But right now, he says, the work is fun 

and exciting and ”our full focus is on commercializing 

our lead product and scaling our 

company and making this idea fly.” NLS 

100

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102

GROWING UP IN AN ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT WITH PARENTS WHO ARE 

SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS, ERIK GATENHOLM SAW HOW TRANSFORMATIVE 

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES COULD BE AND WONDERED HOW MUCH MORE 

GOOD THEY COULD DO IF ONLY MORE PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT THEM. 

TEXT 

b y E L L E N R . D E L I S I O

iotechnology, 

marketing and facilitating change, Gatenholm co-founded 

and is the CEO of Cellink, the world’s first bioink company, 

with its U.S. headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and 

European office in Gothenburg, Sweden. Using bioink 

technology, researchers can print three-dimensional human 

organs and tissue; the biomaterial enables human cells and 

tissue to grow as if they were in a body. 

Bioink and the printer technology stem from work by 

researchers such as Paul Gatenholm, Erik’s father, a professor 

of biopolymer technology and chemistry at Chalmers University 

in Gothenburg. Cellulose from Swedish forests and alginate 

from seaweed native to the Norwegian Sea are among the 

bioink’s ingredients. 

The applications for the bioprinted materials are endless, 

including pharmaceutical and preclinical testing; scientists can 

print out small sections of cancer tumors, for example, and use 

them for testing different drugs and print liver, cartilage and skin 

tissues. Cellink also sells the bioprinters used in the process. 

Five years ago, bioink was not available commercially, 

and Erik Gatenholm decided that needed to change. In the 

three years since Cellink was founded, business has grown 

rapidly and the company has customers in about 

50 countries and employs approximately 100 

people. Married with an apartment in Sweden, 

Gatenholm said he still travels frequently, spending 

most of his time on the east coast of the U.S. 

105 

Erik’s other love is music production, but the passion 

for Cellink have put those activities on hold. “I truly enjoy 

music production and actually had plans of becoming a 

professional House music producer,” he said. “Back in 

2013, I received my first record deal with a record label 

and then kept producing for a few years after that. It’s been 

a while since I produced music now. I miss it.” 

MAKING AN IMPACT 

Gatenholm, 29, met some of his future business partners 

while working on his MBA at Gothenburg University. He 

was born in Sweden, but moved to the U.S. at a young 

age when his father accepted a job at Virginia Polytechnic 

Institute and State University (more commonly known as 

Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

Paul Gatenholm’s area of expertise was bioengineering, 

and he worked with biomaterials and tissue engineering. 

While Erik also was interested in science, he earned a degree 

in business management from Virginia Tech. He learned about 

interesting discoveries and developments in bioengineering and 

science, but also saw the difficulties scientists and entrepreneurs 

had in bringing discoveries to market and getting 

patents. “You have to do that if you want to make an 

impact,” Gatenholm said. “I saw that was missing 

and wanted to focus on that aspect. What a lot of 

companies in the science field are lacking is a focus 

on the management, marketing, and sales.”

A FACE-TO-FACE INDUSTRY 

One of the challenges for new companies in Sweden and other 

Nordic countries is they are not as comfortable marketing products 

as businesses elsewhere, particularly the U.S., Erik Gatenholm 

said. “The environment is different [in Sweden]; I made a point 

that they could excel if they showcased their products. The U.S. 

has different ways of marketing. So many companies here are 

developing great technologies, but they don’t reach out far.” 

In May, Gatenholm had recently completed a “world tour” 

traveling to different research labs to explain bioink. “The life sciences’ 

industry is still a face-to-face industry,” he said. “You have to 

spend time in labs and bring researchers up to speed, you have 

to build up relationships with customers and get to know them. 

I really enjoy that.” 

WANT TO BE READY 

Recruiting high-quality people is another challenge of starting any 

company. “Finding good colleagues and coworkers is hard and finding 

people who are willing to put everything into the company, willing 

to put their entire lives into the company, is hard,” Gatenholm 

said. “You need to motivate them for the long-term perspective and 

provide incentives.” 

Bioink’s uses likely will expand and diversify over the next few 

decades, according to Gatenholm, and he wants to be 

ready. “The first 10 years will be focusing heavily on the 

pharmaceutical and preclinical industries, then we will 

see it working into clinical work,” he said. “We are starting 

with the easy tissues, the single-cell ones. After 10 years, we 

will see researchers working it into clinical fields. We will be 

providing the pickaxe and shovels so they can print skin, a 

meniscus or blood vessels.” 

THE GROUNDWORK FOR A SUCCESSFUL 

BUSINESS 

Looking ahead, Gatenholm’s goal is to create “massive” life sciences’ 

companies that can supply the best added-value technologies. 

“I want to build companies comparable to Facebook and 

Google in the life sciences field.” 

He would advise other entrepreneurs to publicize their names 

and ideas as much as possible as soon as possible. “It’s important 

to stand out; use advertising and marketing to stand out and 

always think about sales opportunities,” Gatenholm said. 

“By the time your product is approved, you will have laid the 

groundwork for a successful business.” 

The Nordic countries also have the key ingredients to grow 

life science companies. “The outlook is quite positive, the field is 

going to grow very rapidly,” Gatenholm said. “There are a lot of 

new companies popping up; the risks are low and the advantages 

high. When you look at the cost of scientists and programmers, 

salaries are lower [than the U.S.], you have a highly-educated 

workforce and the ability to start something very 

rapidly.” NLS 

106

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almost identical 

to a drug manufactured by another 

company whose patent has expired. In 

many cases, however, a single original 

medication can have as many as 200 

patents and exclusivities attached to 

it, according to Julie Maréchal-Jamil, 

director of Biosimilar Policy & Science, 

Medicines for Europe, who is raising 

the question of whether this is in keeping 

with the intent of the patent system. 

“A particular concern is the increasing 

number of patents protecting indications 

that can be used to delay the access 

for patients, as our pharma industry 

has experienced with certain cancer 

medicines in Eastern Europe,” says 

Maréchal-Jamil. “This extensive patent 

landscape adds to the risk of developing 

biosimilar medicines.” 

The quality pre-clinical and clinical 

comparability exercises needed to 

develop biosimilars also requires 

extensive amounts of time and money, 

according to Maréchal-Jamil. What 

this means for drug devel-opers is 

intense discussions with regulatory 

authorities, such as the U.S. Federal 

Drug Administration (FDA) and the 

European Medicines Association 

(EMA), about regulatory issues to 

understand in detail their requirements 

for a specific development program. 

This includes the analytical methods 

to apply for analytical biosimilarity 

exercises and the design of clinical trials, 

says Martin Åmark, CEO/IR of Xbrane 

Biopharma AB, a Swedish biotechnology 

company that is developing biosimilars. 

To get the necessary advice, “We have 

engaged with specialist consulting 

groups and also participated with a 

scientific advisory group,” notes Åmark. 

“We are targeting the European and 

U.S. markets.” 

Xbrane expects to launch its first biosimilar 

in 2022. “You need to have the 

scientific know-how to develop these 

products and the financial resources to 

push them through the trials,” he says. 

As a good omen for the biosimilar industry, 

companies in Finland, Denmark 

and Sweden prevailed in the first patent 

dispute in Finland and Denmark. In 

March, the Finnish Market Court ruled 

against a motion for a preliminary 

injunction against MSD Finland Oy 

filed by F. Hoffman-La Roche AG, 

Roche Oy and Genentech Inc., and in 

Denmark, the Maritime and Commercial 

High Court in Copenhagen denied 

Roche and Genentech preliminary 

injunctions against MSD Danmark, 

Samsung Bioepis and Biogen (Denmark) 

Manufacturing. 

F. Hoffman-La Roche and Genentech 

argued that MSD Finland Oy 

infringed upon Roche and Genentech’s 

rights, according to the Finnish part of 

a European product patent, by marketing 

and selling a biosimilar drug in 

Finland. According to the court, it was 

unlikely MSD Finland would infringe 

on the rights of the companies that produced 

the original drug and was free 

to continue selling its drug to Finnish 

hospitals. 

In Denmark, Genetech and Roche 

claimed MSD Danmark, Samsung Bioepis 

and Biogen were infringing on their 

rights, according to the Danish section 

of a European product patent. 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 

109

Swedish company Xbrane expects to 

launch its first biosimilar in 2022. 

Union accounts for more than 90 percent 

of the global cumulative experience 

with biosimilar medicines, according 

to Maréchal-Jamil. “In the EU, every 

country uses biosimilar medicines, 

however there remains variability among 

countries and also within countries, 

depending on the biologic molecule and 

the therapeutic area.” 

Payers and customers in the Nordic 

countries have been especially accepting 

of biosimilars, according to Pfizer Sweden 

Country Manager Malin Parkler. 

Pfizer’s current portfolio includes four 

approved biosimilars in the U.S. and 

EU for the treatment of cancer or supportive 

care, and approved biosimilars 

for the treatment of inflammatory 

conditions. In terms of guidance during 

production, “We work with a range 

of stakeholders including researchers, 

physicians, patients and policymakers 

to inform our development pipeline 

and bring these important therapies to 

the market,” Parkler informs. 

In September 2017, Pfizer filed a suit 

in U.S. District Court for the Eastern 

District of Pennsylvania against Johnson 

& Johnson, arguing that Johnson & 

Johnson is preventing U.S. patients 

from using a biosimilar produced by 

Pfizer. No trial date has been set. 

“We filed this lawsuit to challenge 

practices that block access, choice 

and price competition for patients, 

so that U.S. patients have access to a 

wide range of treatment options at a 

competitive price,” says Andy Widger, 

Senior Director, Global Media Relations, 

for Pfizer. 

The lawsuit alleges that Johnson & 

Johnson’s anti-competitive practices 

concerning Remicade® (infliximab) 

have denied U.S. patients and the 

broader healthcare system the benefits 

of price competition and therapeutic 

options in the biologics marketplace 

in violation of federal antitrust laws, 

according to Widger. The suit maintains 

that Johnson & Johnson said it 

would withhold significant rebates to 

insurers for both current and future 

patients unless the insurers agreed to 

block coverage for Inflectra and other 

infliximab biosimilars, Widger noted. 

Despite the cost and numerous patent 

and legal issues, interest in biosimilars 

remains high. Currently the European 

Other barriers to biosimilar use are fears 

that they will not be as effective as the 

original drugs and there are insufficient 

inducements to develop and prescribe 

them, according to experts. 

“The lack of incentives and benefitsharing 

schemes, which require specific 

national policy interventions and 

measures [are issues],” says Maréchal- 

Jamil. 

Among the potential solutions she 

cites making sure the framework is 

patient-centric and the market mechanisms 

are supportive of healthy competition; 

the pricing, reimbursement and 

tendering processes and timelines enable 

timely biosimilar medicine launches, and 

the treatment guidelines are revised to 

include improved cost-efficiency where 

biosimilar medicines are available. 

“A competitive and sustainable 

European marketplace that supports 

both originator biologics and oncology 

biosimilars is necessary to obtain the 


NLS 

INSIGHT 

LEGAL ADVICE 

The Xbrane Biopharma 

management team 

Malin Parkler, Country 

Manager, Pfizer Sweden 

Julie Maréchal-Jamil, Director 

of Biosimilar Policy & Science, 

Medicines for Europe

Martin Åmark, CEO, Xbrane Biopharma 

in crafting policies that facilitate 

biosimilar production. “One of the 

fundamental pillars for the successful 

uptake policies in Norway has been the 

government leadership in designing a 

biosimilar policy framework, involving 

multi-stakeholder engagement and an 

active roadmap for policy interventions 

supporting their ambition for biosimilar 

medicines’ role in the healthcare system,” 

says Maréchal-Jamil. “In the Nordic 

region, Sweden can certainly be showcased 

as an active-learning example, 

factoring experience in the design 

of the framework. Swedish officials 

recently outlined the implementation 

of a tiered tendering approach, which 

supports multi-actors in the market 

and healthy competition, as well as 

implementing benefit-sharing schemes 

where the benefits of the introduction 

of biosimilar medicines in clinical practice 

are re-invested in tangible improvements 

for the healthcare community.” 

benefits that these important medicines 

offer for patients, physicians, payers 

and healthcare systems in the longterm,” 

adds Parkler. 

Additional incentives to drive the 

use of biosimilars over more expensive 

originator biologics could include 

regulators accepting interchangeability 

of medications and automatic substitution, 

says Åmark. 

Communicating the safety, effectiveness 

and lower cost of biosimilars to 

patients and healthcare providers also 

helps, according to Maréchal-Jamil, 

including disseminating real-world data 

about the value and benefits seen across 

the healthcare community through the 

use of biosimilar medicines. 

112 NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 

In terms of production, some experts 

maintain that revising the regulations 

for clinical trials could eliminate redundancy 

in testing. Lowering the primary 

requirements for Phase III trials and 

relying more on evidence from analytical 

data and phase I studies would help 

manufacturers get biosimilars to market 

faster, says Åmark. 

Maréchal-Jamil agrees, “The regulatory 

science advances also need to factor in 

the experience for optimal efficiency in 

both the development and registration 

of biosimilar medicines.” 

The Nordic countries, especially 

Sweden and Norway, have been leaders 

The savings from using biosimilars are 

going to become increasingly critical as 

healthcare costs continue to rise. 

“The value and benefits of biosimilar 

utilization in terms of re-investment 

in health and patient care are very clear 

and documented,” notes Maréchal- 

Jamil. Among these are more patients 

receiving treatment earlier because of 

the lower costs of the medications, and 

allowing the savings to be invested in 

other areas of care, such as expanding 

a hospital’s nursing staff, she notes. 

“Biosimilars are one of the most 

promising things to reduce healthcare 

costs in the coming decades,” adds 

Åmark. “They are the key to reducing 

costs and the key to making drugs accessible 

to broader populations.” NLS

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CAREERS 

INTERVIEW 

Anna-Leena Saarela, 


Expert, Crown CRO

PHARMACOVIGILANCE 

TEXT 


today working as a 

Pharmacovigilance Expert at Crown CRO, a Finnish CRO with 

offices in the Nordic and Baltic area and with operations mainly 

in Europe. She is a part of a team of pharmacovigilance experts 

and her responsibilities cover a wide range of tasks, from 

overall maintenance and development of the company’s 

pharmacovigilance (PV) system, to management and coordination 

of PV projects and tasks, and daily PV operations, 

such as safety case processing. 

115 


“A typical day at work varies depending on the stage of the projects 

Crown CRO PV are working on at the time. Right now I am involved 

in developing new Standard Operating Procedures in close collaboration 

with our Quality Assurance department, while at the 

same time planning a controlled change to our electronic 

safety database, Argus Safety, with the system vendor.” 

A clinical trial in the start-up phase is also keeping 

Saarela busy as she and her colleagues are setting up the

safety reporting processes for that particular project together with 

the clinical team and other stakeholders. 

“Other daily tasks involve processing and reporting any adverse 

event reports that may come in from the other ongoing projects 

and other similar unpredictable tasks,” Saarela adds. 

A TEAM EFFORT 

Working at a CRO with different customers and projects requires an 

ability to understand and accommodate the needs and expectations 

of both customers and regulatory bodies to provide a service that 

exceeds customer expectations and meets industry standards, Saarela 

describes. “This makes the job constantly changing and interesting.” 

CRO work is a team effort involving communication with 

customers and authorities but also with various internal stakeholders, 

as different functions work together to achieve common project 

goals. “My work involves a lot of meetings, calls with colleagues from 

different functions, delegating tasks, solving problems, and negotiating 

with stakeholders to find good solutions. Efficient communication is 

the key, and I believe any problem can be solved by clear, timely and 

honest communication with everyone involved,” states Saarela. 

IN THE FRONT LINE 

Anna-Leena Saarela first came to work in the pharmaceutical industry 

in 2002, as an administrator in clinical trials. “Right away I felt I 

had found my calling.” 

Over the past 17 years she has worked in different companies 

within the industry as a Language Services Specialist, 

Project Management Assistant, Clinical Supplies Manager, 

IxRS and Medication Manager, and now as a Pharmacovigilance 

Expert at Crown CRO for the past three years. 

116 

She started off by studying translation at the University of 

Helsinki in Finland, and she also has an Authorized Translator’s 

certificate specialized in medicine and biology. “It was my first job 

as a medical translator two decades ago that led me to the pharmaceutical 

industry and clinical trials, and later on I studied further 

and now I have a Master’s Degree in Pharmacy from the University 

of Helsinki.” 

During her pharmacy studies she specialized in industrial pharmacy, 

and now she is planning to start PhD studies as a kind of 

extracurricular activity alongside her day job, she says. 

The field of pharmacovigilance caught her interest quite early 

in her pharmacy studies, as PV was clearly an area where working 

for the benefit of patient safety was the top priority. “I see it as a 

privilege to be able to work in the front line of the fast developing 

pharmacovigilance environment.” 

VERSATILITY – A CHALLENGE AND AN OPPORTUNITY 

The best part of her job, Saarela describes, is the versatility. “In a 

company of this size it is possible to bring out the best competencies 

in everyone and try your wings in areas you would not have 

the opportunity to see in a large company, where there may often 

be less room for movement outside your own role. This job offers 

a wide range of opportunities for professional growth.” 

Versatility is also the most challenging part of the job, she 

says. Crown CRO is a consulting company aiming to provide its 

customers excellent service, and when customer expectations vary 

Saarela and her colleagues have the challenging and exciting role 

of meeting and exceeding those expectations, while also meeting 

regulatory expectations in a highly regulated industry. “Every day 

at the office is different, and part of my job is to adopt new information 

quickly in a changing environment,” she describes. 

EXTENSIVE REGISTRIES AND DIGITALIZATION 

The regulatory environment around clinical trials, drug development 

and marketing is rapidly changing, and staying up to date 

to comply with global laws, regulations and guidance is very 

important for a life science company entering these phases. Both 

the pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory environment are 

changing constantly, and the clinical trials field will change with 

the upcoming adoption of the new EU Clinical Trial Regulation 

next year, believes Saarela. 

“In pharmacovigilance, the adoption of medical device and 

in-vitro diagnostic device regulations in 2020 and 2022 will have 

a marked impact on the safety reporting of medical devices and 

also on clinical trials concerning medical devices overall. Also real 

world data is a hot topic that will affect the way we look at safety 

information as well. On a more general level, digitalization is a 

global phenomenon, which we at Crown CRO see as an opportunity 

to improve the quality of data and streamline projects.” 

Finland is known for its high-standard medical research and a 

stable industry environment, and this holds true for Finnish CRO 

services as well, says Saarela. One aspect where Finland especially 

stands out, even on a global level, she says, “is the extensive health 

databases and registries that will certainly be utilized 

more and more in future. The registries allow for efficient 

collection of information, such as real world data.” 

“Finland is also a forerunner in the adoption of digital 

solutions, which gives us a stronger position in the midst 

of global digitalization,” Saarela concludes. NLS

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CAREERS 

IN A NEW JOB 

THE LATEST CAREER NEWS FROM THE NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE INDUSTRY 

TEXT 


PHOTO LENA BECK 

ANKI MALMBORG HAGER MALIN PARKLER KLAUS ABEL CATHERINE MAZZACCO 

NEW CEO OF PAINDRAINER 

NEW CHAIR OF LIF SWEDEN 

NEW GENERAL MANAGER 

NEW CEO OF LEO PHARMA 

NORDICS, LEO PHARMA 

ANKI MALMBORG HAGER has a 

long-standing experience of 

leading life science companies in 

their early start-up phases, with 

SenzaGen being the most recent 

achievement. At SenzaGen she 

took the company from a market 

cap of 5 to 500 million SEK. Prior 

to SenzaGen, she was acting 

CEO of Cantargia and Diaprost. 

She holds a doctorate degree in 

Immunotechnology from Lund 

University as well as a Pharma- 

MBA from Falconbury. 

“PainDrainer is a very interesting 

start-up company that has 

developed an absolutely unique 

web-based application for selfmanagement 

of chronic pain. 

Artificial intelligence and eHealth 

are two of the latest and most 

promising technologies that will 

rule much of our future, and I am 

excited to explore the potential 

of this type of business. I very 

much look forward to being part 

of this exciting company and 

build value in the coming years,” 

says Malmborg Hager. 

She started on September 1, 

focusing on the commercial development 

of PainDrainer, using 

its evidence based clinical data. 

MALIN PARKLER, CEO of Pfizer 

Sweden, has been appointed 

new Chair of the Board of the 

Research-based Pharmaceutical 

Industry in Sweden (LIF). Parkler 

was elected to the Board of LIF 

in 2014, and elected Vice Chair 

of the Board of LIF in 2018. Since 

February 2019 she has been the 

Chair of the LIF Board since the 

previous Chair, Niklas Karlberg, 

Novartis, left the Board for an 

international assignment. 

“I am very excited to be able 

to carry on the development work 

that LIF successfully has conducted 

during the last couple of years. 

LIF is a very important and reliable 

partner within Swedish healthcare 

and that is a position that we need 

to manage well. Sweden needs 

an international competitive life 

science strategy, where all actors 

collaborate and interact with each 

other to develop and ensure that 

patients quickly and safely have 

access to effective treatments. A 

well-functioning ecosystem for 

research, development and production 

means both better treatments 

for patients, development 

of scientific skills and investments 

in production,” says Parkler. 

KLAUS ABEL has been appointed to 

lead LEO Pharma across the Nordic 

region. Abel moves into the new 

role from Lundbeck, where he was 

for 19 years. While at Lundbeck 

he held senior roles in Global 

Marketing and in Commercial 

Operations, in addition to Managing 

Director positions in Australia/New 

Zealand from 2007–2011, 

and Italy from 2016–2018. 

As Managing Director for the 

Nordics Organization, Abel will 

lead operations in Denmark, 

Sweden, Norway, Finland and 

Iceland. He will be responsible 

for driving LEO Pharma’s Dermatology 

business, developing 

talent and ensuring a successful 

implementation of LEO Pharma’s 

2025 strategy. Abel will also be 

part of the Cluster Europe North 

Australia New Zealand Leadership 

team. 

“Being a foundation-owned 

company, LEO Pharma has no 

shareholders and is committed 

to reinvesting its profits into 

R&D. These aspects really stand 

out to me. I am inspired by the 

opportunity to improve the 

quality of life of the people living 

with skin conditions,” he says. 

CATHERINE MAZZACCO is an 

accomplished executive with 

more than 25 years of experience 

in international business management, 

strategy, marketing and 

sales in the pharmaceutical and 

life science industry, including in 

launching and expanding biologics 

in immunology. 

Her wealth of professional and 

business experience includes 

positions as head of Global 

Commercial Operations for GE 

Healthcare’s BioPharma 

division, and, before that, 

numerous leadership positions 

at Abbott in the pharmaceutical, 

diagnostic and medical devices 

divisions. Mazzacco has lived in 

the United States since 2011. She 

received her engineering degree 

from the Université de Technologie 

de Compiègne (France). 

She plans to relocate from 

Boston to Denmark in connection 

to her new position. 

Gitte Aabo will step down 

as President and CEO after 27 

years in the company, and 11 of 

these as CEO, and the Board of 

Directors has appointed Catherine 

Mazzacco as new President 

and CEO. 

118 

NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG

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HELENA STRIGÅRD, CEO SWEDENBIO 

SWEDENBIO 

– HARNESSING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE NORDIC LIFE 

SCIENCE HOTBED 

Lately we have discovered a trend, or more accurately a trend 

within a trend. 

T IS ALREADY WELL KNOWN how international 

big pharma and big biotech 

companies are looking to smaller and 

younger companies to vitalize their 

pipelines, since they are dependent 

on external innovation. This phenomenon 

has developed over many years, and now 

we are seeing some interesting and logical 

consequences of this, such as the increasing 

physical openness of larger international 

companies. 

In Sweden, for instance, it was already in 

2014 a deliberate strategy of AstraZeneca to 

open up to the surrounding life science community, 

resulting in the launch of Bioventure 

Hub, an arena where start-ups are located 

within AZ premises. Testa Center at the 

GE Healthcare site in Uppsala is another 

example where a global life science-company 

is exposed to more innovation and science. 

The insight of the necessity of external 

innovation, and with that opening up 

your own assets to brilliant minds outside 

your organization, is currently gaining full 

momentum in every vein of the big life science 

companies, and those who understood 

this many years ago are now reaping the 

benefits. It´s a paradigm shift. 

For the Nordic countries, which year after 

year excel at the top of global innovation 

indexes, this is a potential jackpot-situation. 

Many of the international companies whose 

Nordic presence previously mainly consisted 

of sales offices to gain market access are 

now increasingly seeking interfaces with the 

vibrant Nordic life science community of predominantly 

smaller companies to gain access 

to their innovative power. Some of the former 

are literally moving into the heart of our innovation 

hotbeds at university campuses. 

This local trend, within a much larger 

global trend, could be described as moving 

from market access to also looking for 

innovation access. In Sweden, as well as 

in the rest of the Nordics, we should meet 

this opportunity with intelligence. In order 

to create a proper win-win situation, we 

can be neither protectionist nor naïve. 

he growing international 

interest in harnessing Nordic 

life science innovation should 

truly be embraced. I am 

genuinely convinced that 

business opportunities and collaborations 

early on between innovation start-ups and 

large companies will help build stronger 

homegrown Nordic companies. Not only 

does the interface funnel innovative power 

into big pharma, big biotech etc., it also 

provides newcomers with crucial know-how 

on what it actually takes to meet the global 

market and get it right from the beginning. 

At the same time, for this encounter to be 

beneficial for the young company, it needs 

to have a strong voice in the negotiations. 

Entering into collaborations and business 

agreements is surrounded by pitfalls. 

The innovation system has a role to play 

here, to ensure that strong voice. This requires 

providing critical early stage funding that 

enables various options to be explored 

and weighed against each other, and also 

providing platforms where knowledge and 

know-how can generously be exchanged 

business-to-business, no strings attached. 

After all, you learn best from those who are 

or have been in the same situation. 

This is where we, the Swedish Life science 

industry organization, come in. I´m proud 

to say that building networks, spreading 

knowledge and providing industry with a 

strong voice is our mission. For seven years 

we have provided the largest partnering 

meeting in the Nordics, the Nordic Life 

Science Days (www.nlsdays.com), which 

this year will take place in Malmö on 

10–12th September. The goal is to enable 

such win-win encounters and encourage 

companies of all sizes and origins to share 

their know-how. Openness is the path 

forward. 

Nordic life science should aim high. 

Now more than ever, considering what 

a powerhouse of innovations it is and how 

the world is looking for this resource, let´s 

be bold enough to ask what it would take 

for international companies to engage here, 

with production facilities and long-term 

research investments, adding to the existing 

marketing offices. Then with the question 

asked – policy makers ought to listen to the 

answer. Only then will the Nordic society 

fully harness the full potential of this innovation 

hotbed of ours. NLS 


Connecting ideas, 

businesses and people 

Network with the best minds and talents 

in the life science sector. 

Meet leading decision makers within 

finance, research, policy and regulatory 

authorities. 

www.nlsdays.com 

a 

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SO IT’S OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR – THE 2019 BIO INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION, 

WHERE THE WORLD’S BIOTECH COMMUNITY GATHERS FOR FOUR DAYS OF 

MEETINGS, PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS, DESIGNED, ACCORDING TO 

THE ORGANIZERS, TO “ADVANCE BIOTECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AND 

SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST CHALLENGES TODAY”. 


EVENT 

HIGHLIGHTS 

TEXT 

b y R I C H A R D H A Y H U R S T 

– 65 companies 

had pavilions last year. Perhaps the most 

unexpected was Uruguay with a couple 

of signed Sanchez soccer shirts and an 

interesting range of veterinary and food 

diagnostic start-ups. More low key – i.e., 

no Zlatan shirts – but according to many 

of the 17 000 plus BIO visitors, deeply 

missed and welcomed back was the first 

major Nordic Pavilion for four years. 

Hanne Mette Kristiansen from Innovation 

Norway says her goal has been to reestablish 

a strong and sustainable Nordic 

visibility and presence at the BIO International 

Convention. 

“BIO is an important meeting place, 

witness the 95 Nordic companies/organizations 

and about 160 delegates who attended 

this year. Supporting them with visibility 

and regional branding helps them to stand 

out in an extremely competitive market 

place. Also, there are additional benefits; the 

pavilion provides a connection point and 

meeting place for the Nordic regional players. 

It’s very seldom that the Nordic clusters 

and support organizations are in the same 

place for three days and so BIO makes the 

venue the perfect place to review and discuss 

Nordic collaborative efforts. However, the 

main focus is always on supporting the 

companies and optimizing the value of their 

participation in the conference,” she says. 


acked by Sweden- 

BIO’s Jonas Ekstrand 

and Helena 

Strigård. 

“For this year’s 

conference, it was 

great to see the 

Nordic countries 

jointly branded for the first time as The Nordics – Global Hub for 

Life Science Innovation with our value proposition to international 

companies and investors packaged in one set of messages, 

building upon common denominators. By joining forces 

with our neighbouring countries in this way, we believe that we 

can be even more successful in attracting intelligent capital and 

business-to-business collaborations to our life science sector. This 

is imperative for the continuous growth of Swedish life science,” 

says Helena Strigård, CEO, SwedenBIO. 

Both also agreed that the Pavilion was a success worth repeating. 

“The Pavilion attracted a steady stream of visitors from 

the global life science community asking about investment and 

collaboration possibilities in the Nordic region. Project scouts 

typically asked about companies active in specific therapy areas 

and investors were keen to learn about the strong life science sector 

and what are the specific Nordic USPs. Also, there was quite 

some curiosity about the Nordic countries’ cultural features and 

traditions,” informed Strigård. 

According to Nadja Kronenberger of Healthcare Denmark, the 

Danes joined the Nordic Pavilion to strengthen ties to the other 

Nordic countries and promote Denmark as a leading life science 

nation, in accordance with The Danish Growth Plan for Life 

Science, which was published last year. 

“BIO fulfilled our expectations – we found the conference 

inspiring and had many interesting conversations, for example 

about new joint Nordic projects. We also got the chance to 

promote Denmark as the leading nation in terms of clinical trials 

per capita in the European Union and attract further trials and 

research to Denmark,” says Nadja Kronenberger. 

Many longterm BIO visitors also 

remembered the DeCode story and were 

pleased to see Iceland present in the pavilion 

according to Erna Björnsdóttir of 

Promote Iceland. 

”By participating in the Nordic booth at 

BIO for the first time, we got an opportunity 

to connect with Nordic colleagues and further 

discuss future common promotional activities. 

Sharing information with them and 

other national clusters and organisations will help Promote Iceland 

develop promotional material and stories to support our messages.” 

The sense of community was strengthened by an evening 

reception on June 4th. Altogether, over one hundred delegates 

were welcomed by Ulf Åkerblom, Swedish Honorary Consul in 

Philadelphia and Roger Franklin, Partner at Hadean Ventures, 

who pointed out that Philadelphia was one of the main points of 

entry to the US for early Swedish settlers and celebrated in the 

monument to Penn, which dominates the city skyline. 

The conference programme itself was interesting, with the acceleration 

of innovation and convergence of biological and digital 

technologies a recurring theme. The general consensus seemed to 

be that the future for biotechnology is bright, but as a sector it will 

continue to face hurdles, such as funding and affordability of treatments, 

especially with the growth of cell and gene therapies. 

investment the idea that the innovation 

hub models of Boston and San Francisco 

cannot exist anywhere given the lack of venture 

capital was challenged by other US regions, 

including the hosts Philadelphia. They emphasized 

the importance of people and patients and offered 

the Spark Therapeutics’ partnership with the 

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as an example 

of how to be successful without following the 

traditional model of VC funding. They also encouraged countries 

across the globe developing domestic biotech sectors that don’t 

have access to large amounts of capital to creatively leverage their 

existing institutions and expertise. 

124 

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2877 BT_halvside_200x126_NordicScience.indd 1 21/08/2019 15.05

EVENT 

HIGHLIGHTS 

The Nordic countries were jointly 

branded for the first time as The 

Nordics – Global Hub for Life 

Science Innovation 

However, the key question, particularly for many readers of this 

magazine, will always be whether BIO is worthwhile from a business 

point of view. Never mind the countless receptions, extravagant 

pavilions and star-studded keynotes, will you meet key potential 

collaborators, customers and investors? BIO certainly thinks so. 

According to the pressrelease, “The Convention 

continued to demonstrate that it is the 

premiere networking event for the biotechnology 

industry. BIO hosted more than 48 500 

partnering meetings.” 

A snapshot of Nordic attendees seems to 

say yes. Two long standing BIO supporters 

are Gunnar Gardemyr, CFO of Follicum and 

Martin Welschof, CEO of BioInvent. 

“BIO is one of the most important partnering 

events we have. It is a great platform 

for a small biotech like Follicum to explore 

high-quality partnering opportunities. I had 

more than 30 meetings this year with companies 

from the USA, EU, Japan, China and 

Korea. BIO also provides excellent networking 

opportunities every day through the various 

receptions,” says Gardemyr. 

“BIO is always useful for me to do face-toface 

follow-ups and/or to generate potential 

new partnering leads,” adds Welschof. 

From another perspective, and picking up on Gardemyr’s observation, 

Ralph Inforzato, CEO of JETRO Chicago, the Japan External 

Trade Organisation, said that Japanese biotechs see Scandinavia as 

one of the leading hubs in Europe, and BIO as providing a perfect 

meeting place, being a global meeting that just happens to be held 

in the US. 

BIO will return to San Diego for the fourth 

time from June 8–11 in 2020. According to 

Kara Nelson, Manager, International Relations, 

BIO was thrilled to welcome back the 

Nordic Pavilion to the BIO Exhibition floor. 

“Nordic companies made a significant 

impact, seen throughout BIO’s exhibition 

and partnering programs at the event. The 

Nordics Pavilion highlighted the strength of 

its vibrant life sciences community and why 

it is one of the leading biotechnology hubs in 

Europe,” she says. 

Already this year’s team are planning for 

a stronger presence in San Diego, as well as 

looking to provide more input into the official 

programme and build on the success of 

associated events, such as the International 

Cancer Showcase organized by Jutta Heix 

of the Oslo Cancer Cluster. NLS 

126 

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UPCOMING EVENTS NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 

UPCOMING 

EVENTS 

LIFE SCIENCE EVENTS, MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES 

TEXT 


26 SEPTEMBER 2019: PARK ANNUAL 

SAHLGRENSKASCIENCEPARK.SE/ 

PARK-ANNUAL 

This 14th year of the event will, as always, showcase seminars, 

one-to-one meetings, exhibitions and lots of networking opportunities. 

11-13 NOVEMBER 2019: 

BIO-EUROPE 

This event celebrates 25 

years this year, and Hamburg 

Messe will offer three 

days of biotech, pharma 

and finance. 

HE SPOTLIGHT 

WILL be turned 

on women’s 

health, workable 

AMR financial 

models, CNS, digital health 

and clinical trials, gene therapy 

valuation and deal trends and 

funding trends and how to 

break them. 

Last year the event attracted 

4 354 attendees, 26 092 oneto-one 

meetings took place, 

and 5 203 licensing opportunities 

were posted. In addition, 

2 325 companies participated, 

there were 139 company presentations, 

131 exhibitors, and 

60 countries were represented. 

A pre-event course in advanced 

business development 

has also been organized. It is an 

intensive three-day workshop 

for professionals who want to 

learn, develop and practice 

their business development 

skills, working in teams with the 

guidance of an expert faculty. 

BDGROUP.KNECT365.COM/BIOEUROPE 

THE EVENT, WHICH gathers 

more than 500 representatives 

from industry, academia and 

the healthcare sector sets out 

to create inspiring ideas and 

interesting business opportunities. 

For example, the day will 

include presentations from 

both startup-companies and 

more recognized life science 

organizations. The theme The 

Future of Health embraces 

cross-collaboration and humane 

technology and reflects the 

ongoing paradigm shifts within 

healthcare and life science, 

attracting pioneering entrepreneurs 

and venture capital willing 

to back them. 

Speakers include Almira 

Thunström, organizational 

developer and researcher at 

Psychiatry of Affective Disorders 

at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 

Andres Strasser, Investment 

Director EMEA at Volvo Car 

Corporation, and Johan Hyllner, 

Senior Director and Head of 

Cell and Gene therapy at CVRM 

at AstraZeneca. 

The day will also include 

the announcement of the 

winner of the Arvid Carlsson 

Award by Sahlgrenska Science 

Park. The award goes to an 

entrepreneur who drives development 

forward for human health 

and wellbeing and previous 

winners include Erik Gatenholm 

(highlighted in this issue) 

and Hector Martinez and their 

company Cellink, and Susanne 

Staaf and Kristina Lagerstedt 

and their company 1928 Diagnostics. 

128 

NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE

EVENTS NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 

CALENDAR 

26 SEPTEMBER 

GOTHENBURG 

4-5 OCTOBER 

NEW DELHI 

9 OCTOBER 

PACIFICO YOKOHAMA 

11-13 NOVEMBER 

HAMBURG 

19-21 NOVEMBER 

ODENSE 

10 DECEMBER 

MARSEILLE 

Park Annual 

InnoHealth 

Bio-Japan 

BIO-Europe 

Week of Health and 

INNovation 

BioFIT 

19-21 NOVEMBER 2019: WEEK OF HEALTH AND INNOVATION 

10 DECEMBER 2019: 

BIOFIT 

WWW.WHINN.DK 

This European partnering 

event focuses on early-stage 

deals and investment rounds 

in the life sciences field. 

This conference showcases future innovation and technology in healthcare. 

WHINN, THE WEEK OF HEALTH AND 

INNOVATION Is a health tech and 

health innovation conference 

that attracts business people, 

decision makers, policy makers, 

clinicians, end-users and people with a general 

interest in healthcare and health innovation. 

The exhibition gathers private companies, 

private-public organizations, municipalities, 

regions, innovation labs, country pavilions, 

students, academia and many more. 

The program includes topics such as robots, 

AI and drones of the future, digital therapeutics, 

improving access for all citizens, the sundhed 

technology, and virtual reality/augmented reality 

in healthcare. 

BIOFIT IS a leading 

partnering event 

in Europe for technology 

transfer, 

academia-industry 

collaborations, early-stage 

innovation deals, and is the 

European marketplace for 

pre-seed, seed and Series 

A investment rounds in the 

life sciences field. This year’s 

event is held in Marseille. 

The three tracks in the 

program are Best practices 

and academia-industry R&D 

collaborations, Nurturing and 

licensing early-stage assets, 

and Early-stage innovation: 

identify the right funding 

sources. 

WWW.BIOFIT-EVENT.COM

UPCOMING EVENTS 

INNOHEALTH 

… Parthvee Jain, Head of Market Access and Partnerships at Inno- 

HEALTH, an annual conference for influencers, investors, startups, 

young innovators and media in health innovation. 

hat have been the 

outcomes from your 

previous events? 

“Previous events have 

generated for example 35 panel discussions, 

over 200 partnering meetings, and 

have attracted over 1500 participants.” 

Testimonials include a comment from 

Dr Katja Heikkinen from Turku AMK 

in Finland, saying “The program of the 

week was spectacular and we got really 

good and valuable contacts.” Dr Rahil 

Qamar Siddiqui, co-founder of Eventus 

in India said that last year’s conference 

was very productive and informative and 

“It was a pleasure being associated with 

it and meeting some fantastic people.” 

What are you most looking forward 

to in the program? 

“I am looking forward to the session 

sponsorships, the exhibition booths and 

the young innovators award, where the 

finalists will give their presentations in 

the presence of our jury and over 500 

healthcare stakeholders who will evaluate 

the innovations.” 

Why is this event important for 

the life science industry? 

“The event comprises nine high powered 

sessions, inclusive of an inaugural session. 

The discussions and presentations in 

these sessions are all focused primarily 

towards the celebration of innovation. 

Since life sciences deal with the branches 

of science that involve life, all the sessions 

can be relatable in some degree or other 

and be related to life sciences involving 

innovation. More closely, the sessions on 

the following topics are directly related 

to life sciences. The conference highlights 

innovations for hospitals and insurance 

companies, innovations in medical devices 

and diagnostics and the task of fighting 

diabetes with technological innovations. 

In the above mentioned sessions, influencers 

from different walks of life collaborate, 

deliberate and place a study before 

industry leaders and decision makers so 

that the provision of more scope towards 

the research segments can be easily and 

cumulatively administered.” 

Something you would like to add 

about the upcoming event that visitors 

should not miss? 

“Do not miss the company pitches 

and the InnovateHER session, highlighting 

inspiring women entrepreneurs 

in healthcare.” NLS 

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What 

science 

can do 

AstraZeneca is is a global, science-led 

biopharmaceutical company that focuses 

on on the the discovery, development and and commercialisation 

of of prescription medicines, primarily 

for for the the treatment of of diseases in in three main 

therapy areas – Oncology, Cardiovascular, 

Renal & Metabolic diseases and and Respiratory. 

Our Our footprint in in the the Nordics is is significant, 

especially in in Sweden where 6,900 people are are 

working to to deliver life life changing medicines to to 

patients. The The company has has sites in in Gothenburg 

and and Södertälje, where we we are are continuously 

looking for for skilled talents. 

Either you you are are interested in in working with R&D, 

marketing, manufacturing, enabling functions 

or or you you would like like to to become part of of our our new 

highly technological plant for for biologics in in 

Södertälje, you you should look out out for for vacancies 

at at www.astrazeneca.se/karriar 

Pancreatic Pancreatic beta beta cells cells at at different different 

stages stages of of regeneration 

regeneration 

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca is is conducting conducting research research to to 

find find medicines medicines that that could could stimulate stimulate the the 

proliferation proliferation of of beta beta cells cells in in the the pancreas, pancreas, 

or or induce induce the the differentiation differentiation of of other other cells cells 

into into insulin insulin producing producing beta beta cells. cells. 

Our Our ambition ambition with with this this research research is is to to 

hopefully hopefully one one day day be be able able to to stop stop the the 

progression progression or or maybe maybe even even reverse reverse the the 

course course of of diabetes. diabetes. 

AstraZeneca 

151 15185 Södertälje 

www.astrazeneca.se 

SE-3847-09-18-AZ

NL nr 3-2019_300 dpi

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