This conference at Oslo Science Park on November 19 brought together actors from research, industry, and the investment community to strengthen preparedness and innovation within the life sciences in Norway and Europe.

The conference was moderated by Karoline Schjetne, Director R&D at Thermo Fisher Scientific and opening remarks were delivered by Delphine Costa, CEO of The Life Science Cluster and Tone Juel, senior advisor at co-organiser Tekna.

Artificial Intelligence

The program started out with a look into the future, represented by Insilico Medicine, a unicorn established in 2014 at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. Keynote speaker Petrina Kamya, VP, Global Head of AI Platforms at Insilico Medicine, talked about the potential which lies in using AI to leverage drug discovery and development. 

The idea behind Insilico Medicine has been to use deep learning algorithms, image recognition technology and natural language processing to conquer the challenges with drug discovery, drug development and clinical trials – to substantially reduce the time to clinic, and halve the costs associated with the whole drug discovery process.

Resilience

Rebekka Borsch, director research, innovation and digitalisation at NHO, mapped out the geopolitical challenges and how they are influencing supply chains. Borsch said that the world is heading toward geoeconomics, where economics becomes geopolitics, and states use trade, finance and technology to pursue foreign-policy and security goals.

For small and open countries like Norway we must meet the challenges, but focusing on efficiency is not enough. We must work to decrease vulnerabilities, reduce dependencies and strengthen resilience. This means we must step up our investment in life science preparedness and turn more research into commercial opportunities. 

Unfortunately, Borsch said, Norway is still stuck in the sardine box economy, of fish, oil and aluminium.

“We need a minset shift”

In an investor panel led by Markus Dietrich at Hadean Ventures, Anne Ulvestad from strategy consultancy Innosiamo said we have excellent science and research, but we must find ways to translate this into new products and services. We need a mindset shift, Ulvestad said, not only among researchers, but also in the political environment.

Andreas Dirnagl, senior advisor healthcare at DNB, echoed the concern expressed by Rebecca Borsch when he stated that Norway really needs to lean into the fact that efficiency is being replaced by resilience. This is not just driven by geopolitics, Dirnagl said, but had been apparent in the health care industry since the pandemic. Our global value-chains have in some cases become dangerously concentrated in places that have great implications for national security.

“We need a strategy, and start walking the first steps”

In a panel led by Monica Larsen from LMI, Matthew Iles, General Manager at AbbVie Scandinavia and Ole Kristian Aars from The Norwegian Medical Products Agency discussed the challenges in getting new therapies to the market. Iles stressed the experience from the development of the covid vaccine. The collaboration between companies and government and the scaling up of production was all quite remarkable and unprecedented. 

Iles said that the politicians need to understand that the pharma industry is complex and that succeeding in building an industry is not done overnight. We can look to Denmark, Iles said, and decide that we want to be like the Danes, but realise that it will take 50 years to get there. So we need patience, but we also need a strategy paper that can show how to walk the first footsteps.

Sustainable bioeconomy

In a parallel session, a panel with Øystein Arlov, Research Manager at SINTEF, Terje Tingbø, Head of Commercial Development, Emerging Markets at Pharmaq, Ingrid Dynna, CEO at Norwegian Mycellium (NoMy) and Idar Alvestad, CEO at Fenja Biosolutions discussed how biotechnology, circular resource utilization, and new industrial partnerships can drive a more resilient and sustainable bioeconomy. 

Highlighting structural and financial foundations

InLifeScience 2025 ended with a presentation of Sweden’s life science strategy by Håkan Hollmark, Marketing Director, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE). The session showcased a collaboration between Testa Center, CCRM Nordic, NorthX Biologics and RISE, highlighting structural and financial foundations for growth and opportunities for Norwegian stakeholders. 

The conference concluded with a dialogue moderated by Luisa Lundin, Alliance Manager, NorthX Biologics, and with Hanne Haslene-Hox (SINTEF), Alexandra Patriksson (Testa Center), Jim Lund (CCRM Nordic), Anna Pasetto (OUS) and Daniel Gurmu (RISE) in the panel.