Ideas from a California university inspire research and training in commercialization. It’s been a year since the launch of the Centre for Technology Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Denmark
Nordic Life Science
The COVID-19 pandemic
Cobra Biologics and the Karolinska Institutet have announced they have been awarded €3 million emergency funding by Horizon 2020 for research and development, and phase I clinical trial testing of
A drug already tested against lung disease could potentially inhibit COVID-19 by reducing the coronavirus load that enters the lungs and other organs. That is according to a study in
Karolinska Institutet has now received the test material that will allow scientists to perform 5,000 analyses a day on patient samples. A specially chartered SAS flight landed at Arlanda on Wednesday
In a small clinical trial just granted approval, about 30 COVID-19 patients at Karolinska University Hospital may soon begin to receive blood plasma from people who have recovered from the
BioPorto Diagnostics and University of Southern Denmark (SDU) develops COVID-19 test for early detection of infected patients to improve patient outcome and epidemic control. In this collaboration, Associate Professor Jonas
SynAct Pharma investigates the possibility of developing its clinical anti-inflammatory lead candidate drug AP1189 as an additional therapy in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection, to prevent Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Norwegian hospitals are part of an international study with the purpose of determining which existing medicines are most effective against Covid-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a multiarm,
NLS News
Ideas from a California university inspire research and training in commercialization. It’s been a year since the launch of the Centre for Technology Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Denmark
Nordic Nanovector announces a number of initiatives to speed up recruitment of its clinical trial as well as extend its cash runway into 2021, including a reduction in staffing. At
LINK Medical has announced the opening of its new UK office at MedCity, in London’s City region. The expansion to London will enable the company to bring significant value to
Olympus has announced the winners of its first Global Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy Award, a competition that recognizes the best in life science imaging worldwide. Ainara
AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi has been approved in the US as a 1st-line treatment for adult patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) in combination with standard-of-care (SoC) chemotherapies, etoposide plus
The first day of trading on Nasdaq Stockholm’s main market is 27 March 2020. March 18, 2020 that Nasdaq Stockholm’s listing committee had approved that the company’s shares are admitted
The Stockholm Material Hub (SMH) has secured funding from the EU’s European Regional Development Fund, enabling continued research into novel materials and their use in life science applications. SMH is
AstraZeneca will collaborate with Silence Therapeutics to discover, develop and commercialize small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular, renal, metabolic and respiratory diseases. This multi-target collaboration will
The basic idea behind the Open Discovery Innovation Network (ODIN), a pilot project that will be a free space for the next three years, is to improve Denmark’s ability to
Moberg Pharma enters financing agreement of up to 216 million SEK for further investments in MOB-015. Moberg Pharma has entered into a convertible note agreement with Nice & Green S.A.,
The company will submit a De Novo application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to obtain a market approval for the company’s antibiotic–releasing product CERAMENT G. The application
Lipigon acquires antisense drug candidates for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases from Secarna. The company has acquired antisense drug candidates jointly generated with Secarna Pharmaceuticals under a previous research collaboration. Lipigon
Lynparza has been granted orphan drug designation (ODD) in Japan for the maintenance treatment of germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) curatively unresectable pancreatic cancer. Lynparza is co-developed and co-commercialised with MSD. “Japan
Elekta’s Unity magnetic resonance radiation therapy (MR/RT) system took the silver award for radiation treatment advancements in the medical/dental category. Among the nomination entries comprising the best products, services, and
Drug and device development
Norwegian hospitals are part of an international study with the purpose of determining which existing medicines are most effective against Covid-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a multiarm,
Athera Biotechnologies announces that the last patient has been dosed in their Phase 2 study with ATH3G10, a new candidate drug for prevention of heart failure. The study completed recruitment
Data from the first dose group in the SpagoPix phase I trial show that SN132D is well tolerated, and provide valuable information for optimization of MRI in the next step.
Moberg Pharma have announced that all patients in the European MOB-015 Phase 3 study have completed their last study visit. The data collection in the study were completed without any
Oncopeptides has announced measures the company is taking in response to the global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Most importantly, the phase 2 HORIZON study will not be
Profile
Barbro Ehnbom has successfully promoted women in their careers, not least within life sciences, and she is herself a living example of the changes she has pushed for.
The Nobel Prize
Professor Honjo did not set out to find a cure for cancer but he is glad he did not give up and believes cancer immunotherapy will be the Number One
When your passion and lifelong work are the same. Great things can happen. Just ask James Allison.
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for ther pioneering work in cancer immunotheraphy.
“Immunotherapy can be combined with almost anything; you can combine it with chemotherapy or radiation as long as you do it right. The benefits of immunotherapy are several; the best one is that once T cells see something different about the cancer cell and attack the cancer, they can be re-activated [if the cancer reoccurs.]” – James Allison
Upcoming events
BioTrinity is a two day life sciences conference that in response to the new coronavirus outbreak will be delivered digitally. BioTrinity focuses on partnering, investment and collaboration and aims to
The organizers of Bio€quity Europe have decided to postpone this year’s event (originally scheduled for May 11-12, Dublin) due to the COVID-19 outbreak. “We are now reviewing options for rescheduling
The 7th International Conference on Drug Discovery and Toxicology is going to be held during July 13-14, 2020 in Helsinki, Finland. The main theme of the conference is based upon
You can’t get a drug to market without a clinical trial. You can’t run a clinical trial without product supply. The 2020 Clinical Trial Supply Forum (postponed until August 24-26
In a new job
Zelluna Immunotherapy has announced the appointment of Namir Hassan as its chief executive officer (CEO). “At this stage of Zelluna’s evolution, we are delighted to appoint Namir Hassan as CEO.
Swedish biotechnology start-up Cartana has announced the appointment of Mårten Winge as CEO. A spin-out from the SciLifeLab, Cartana has launched a new spatial cell type mapping service and reagent
The Board of Oasmia Pharmaceutical has appointed Francois Martelet as the new CEO. Martelet has extensive international experience of leading pharmaceutical companies. He replaces Sven Rohmann, who has been acting
Careers
Ann-Britt Önnered and Linda Jervelius manage Quality Assurance at a microbiology laboratory and share their insights about maintaining a secure and hygienic laboratory environment, a crucial part of lab life.
New issue of NLS is out now!
ISSUE 01 2020 // This issue includes exclusive interviews with the Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine 2019 as well as in-depth articles about the Nobel discoveries in medicine and chemistry. It also includes a Danish initiative to make engineers into entrepreneurs, exciting new research at MedTechLabs, advice for a successful transport validation strategy, and much more!
Our region is filled with life science activity. We take a closer look at what´s going in our Nordic cities when it comes to life science efforts, progress and challenges.
In focus – Nordic cities
Nordic Life Science
The latest clinical trials
Athera Biotechnologies announces that the last patient has been dosed in their Phase 2 study with ATH3G10, a new candidate drug for prevention of heart failure. The study completed recruitment
Data from the first dose group in the SpagoPix phase I trial show that SN132D is well tolerated, and provide valuable information for optimization of MRI in the next step.
Moberg Pharma have announced that all patients in the European MOB-015 Phase 3 study have completed their last study visit. The data collection in the study were completed without any
Oncopeptides has announced measures the company is taking in response to the global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Most importantly, the phase 2 HORIZON study will not be
Medicortex Finland has announced the start of a clinical trial for detection of mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and concussion. The clinical trial will be conducted at Satasairaala hospital in
Gedea Biotech, has reported results from a clinical study of its lead product, pHyph, a vaginal tablet for topical treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV). In this open-label, single-armed, multi-center study,
Targovax has completed patient enrollment in the phase I trial with ONCOS-102 in combination with Keytruda in patients with advanced anti-PD1 checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) refractory melanoma. In this trial, ONCOS-102
As a precautionary measure, in the continuous efforts to limit the spreading of the COVID-19 outbreak, and to shelter patients as well as healthcare staff, external personnel are given restricted
Medivir has presented new data from the completed phase Ia study with MIV-818. The primary objective of the phase Ia study was to evaluate safety and tolerability of MIV-818 in
The latest research news from the Nordic region
Science Article
Assistant Professor Juha Saarikangas at HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, has been awarded the Young Investigator Grant of the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) to study cellular aging from a new
Researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm are developing a serological test for COVID-19 antibodies. The test would be used to ensure whether individuals have had the disease,
Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University Hospital in Sweden and Massachusetts General Hospital in the US have published new findings about the risks of developing liver cancer. Among adults
An international team of scientists led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has launched a comprehensive overview of all proteins expressed in the brain, published in the journal Science. The open-access
Three coronavirus projects coordinated by researchers at Karolinska Institutet have moved onto the grant negotiation phase in a bid for 9 million euros (95 million kronor) in EU funding. The
Parts of tumor tissue, which is normally discarded in cancer surgery, bear information about the disease, and studies at the University of Gothenburg show that this has been unexploited. This
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