The Swedish Industry and Innovation Minister, Mikael Damberg, notified last Thursday an upcoming commitment to innovative production of biopharmaceuticals within the framework of the life science collaboration program.
“The government is contributing with 90 million SEK in order to create an unique innovation environment which will overcome the important shift from research to industrial production of biopharmaceuticals. Ten years ago one in ten blockbusters was biologics and today eight out of ten is, which makes this a very exciting area which also will contribute to new possibilities of treating difficult diagnoses,” Damberg says.
Five collaboration programs
On June 1st the Swedish government launched five collaboration programs, one of them within life science, coordinated by Mikael Damberg. The programs are based on a developed collaboration between public actors, the industry and the academia in Sweden, with a focus on innovation. “The commitment to biologics” is one of these efforts where the purpose to make Sweden a leader in life science and the future production of biologics. In December the government initiated a commitment together with for example AstraZeneca and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation on a national research program for biopharmaceuticals.
The next step
The government now aims to, together with GE Healthcare, take the next step in this commitment through a common effort specifically focused on innovative production of biologics. The government will, within the program’s framework, contribute to the building of an open innovation hub in Uppsala which will make a production environment for industrial scaling up more accesible and welcome both small and large companies as well as the academia.
“This will facilitate for small and middle-sized companies to grow and create jobs in Sweden. The government aims to, with this commitment, take initiative for collaboration between the industry but also with the academia and other actors,” says Damberg.
