Masha Strømme, founder of PAACS Invest, shares her advice to aspiring life science entrepreneurs looking to succeed and make a difference for patients.

A French-Canadian by birth, Masha Strømme prepared for a career in research, earning a doctorate in genetics and neuroscience thanks to a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. After finishing her doctorate she felt a different calling and joined Morgan Stanley as an investment banker, specifically focusing on the healthcare industry.

“In the 1990s, it was the beginning of the biotech sector in Europe,” Strømme says. “When I finished my PhD in 1997, I saw a chance to help stimulate funds for the budding biotech sector across Europe.”

After a few years at Morgan Stanley, Masha moved on to other smaller investment banks before the Strømmes decided to relocate to her husband’s native Norway. Now they are helping entrepreneurs build their companies, including boards and management teams and assisting them translate their proposals from idea to market. Biotechnology startups need funding, but often they need guidance just as much. Investors with a high level of scientific knowledge are often hard to come by. That is the niche Masha Strømme and her husband Dag have been filling since the launch of PAACS Invest in Norway in 2008, funding and advising biotechnology companies in their infancy.

A precision health approach

Raising money for healthcare startups in Norway is a significant challenge, says Strømme.

“It’s about making a difference for patients, which requires good science, good solutions and capital.”

“There are few seed and pre-seed investors focusing on the space,” she notes. “It’s about making a difference for patients, which requires good science, good solutions and capital. A larger pool of pre-seed and seed investors would make it easier to take innovations forward.”

PAACS has been focusing on precision health, particularly women’s health, she adds. “Men and women are different in health and disease – and unfortunately the assumption has been that women are ‘just men with pesky hormones’. It is important that research and development take these differences into consideration when developing new therapeutics or diagnostics solutions. I firmly believe that a precision health approach to innovation will help increase the success for both innovators and patients.”

Nordic strengths

Norway and the Nordics generally have many strengths when it comes to nurturing biotechnology, says Strømme.

“We have created tremendous networks to help startups coming out of academia or out of the local ecosystem. There are high quality advisors, people who dedicate their time for mentoring. The science is solid and the soft funding is very good, with good opportunities for gender-balanced organizations,” she says.

“There is a good push towards parity in management teams and we see an increasing number of women innovators and CEOs in the space in Norway.”

”In fact, since passing the quota law in 2005, Norway has been a trail-blazer, reaching 40 percent of women on boards of publically listed companies since 2009. There is a good push towards parity in management teams and we see an increasing number of women innovators and CEOs in the space in Norway.”

Working across the globe

Working in different countries has provided Masha Strømme with a large network on which to draw.

“I’ve always combined my personal life with my professional life,” she says in explaining her moves. “I love to work across the globe. With people in your network, it doesn’t matter where you work these days.”

“Biotechnology is also a global industry and you need a global perspective to keep your finger on the pulse and remain at the cutting edge of your particular field of interest.”

For example, Strømme is on the board of a company in Australia. “Biotechnology is also a global industry and you need a global perspective to keep your finger on the pulse and remain at the cutting edge of your particular field of interest.”

Strømme says that the CEO of Amgen, Robert Bradway, and Sir William Castell, former CEO of GE Healthcare and former Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, have both been important mentors at different stages of her career.

There is no average body

With much to show for her life and career already, Strømme still considers herself ‘a work in progress’ even after starting a company and raising four children. She has plans for a not-for-profit called 4herhealth, focusing on precision health.

“I’m working with a few people to launch a for-impact organization – a movement – whose overarching goal is to help catalyze precision health across industry and institutions for the benefit of the individual,” she says.

 

Masha Strømme

Masha Strømme has plans for a not-for-profit called 4herhealth, focusing on precision health.

 

“There is no ‘average’ body. This needs to be taken into consideration when we develop healthcare solutions. There are so many treatments that are expensive and don’t necessarily work well. Look at COVID-19, how men and women are affected in such different ways,” she explains.

Researchers know that women and men develop diseases differently and will react to drugs differently. It is important that they take this into consideration when designing preclinical and clinical work, Strømme explains.

“From the cells and in vitro work, to the animals and in vivo testing, all the way to patient recruitment, the differences are notable.”

“From the cells and in vitro work, to the animals and in vivo testing, all the way to patient recruitment, the differences are notable,” she says. “As women’s health is closely balanced through the relationship between the endocrine system – the central nervous system and the immune system, ignoring the differences between men and women in health and disease is essentially leaving women’s health to chance.”

“We have seen a change towards precision health starting within the field of oncology, with therapeutic solutions increasingly targeting the underlying mutations of the tumor,” she continues. “Thanks to big data, the greatly-reduced cost of DNA sequencing and a patient-centric approach, therapies are being developed that target the underlying cause of the disease for each patient, rather than merely addressing the symptoms of the disease.”