CCRM Nordic will serve as a national infrastructure and competence node for the benefit of companies throughout the country and will also strengthen Sweden’s international competitiveness.
The new cluster has been established as a not-for-profit company and is currently in the starting phase. In total, SEK 160 million will be invested over the next two years.
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“We have received financial support from the Swedish Government, through the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova, and our industry consortium as well as local innovation actors such as Region Västra Götaland, GoCo Health Innovation City and GU Ventures. Supported by an industry consortium and bolstered by CCRM’s proven global success, this initiative will reshape ATMP [Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products] development,” remarks Carl-Peter Mattsson, Investment Director at GU Ventures and one of the board members of CCRM Nordic.
Our mission is to transform medicine with “living therapies” by tackling the major challenges in the industry – like access to capital, biomanufacturing and talent development.”
Advanced therapies have the potential to provide effective treatments or even cure a multitude of diseases, as well as becoming a major segment of the life science industry. To fulfill this potential, several medical, technological and system challenges and barriers must be surmounted. “Therefore, our mission is to transform medicine with “living therapies” by tackling the major challenges in the industry – like access to capital, biomanufacturing and talent development,” explains Jim Lund, Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) at CCRM Nordic.
Jim Lund, Chief Business Development Officer, CCRM Nordic, and Carl-Peter Mattsson, Investment Director, GU Ventures, Board member, CCRM Nordic
Based in Mölndal
The cluster will be based in Mölndal outside Gothenburg, and the plan is to launch a process development lab within the next few months that will be utilized until GoCo Health Innovation City has finished building the permanent lab in a few years. Being located in Mölndal, where significant investments are currently being made in the local infrastructure and networks, will enable the cluster to grow and evolve in a thriving ecosystem, describes Fredrik Wessberg, CEO of CCRM Nordic. “In addition, we will also benefit greatly from being close to one of AstraZeneca’s three global R&D sites that in addition is driving many of their global cell and gene-therapy efforts,” he adds.
It gives us proximity to important infrastructure for advanced therapies and opens up unprecedented opportunities for collaboration within our efforts to develop new cell and gene technologies.”
“For AstraZeneca, it is particularly pleasing that the innovation cluster ends up in GoCo Health Innovation City. It gives us proximity to important infrastructure for advanced therapies and opens up unprecedented opportunities for collaboration within our efforts to develop new cell and gene technologies,” says Per Alfredsson, President of AstraZeneca in Sweden.
Fredrik Wessberg, CEO, CCRM Nordic, and Per Alfredsson, President, AstraZeneca Sweden (Photo: Mikael Kristenson)
Inspiration from Canada
Inspiration for the innovation cluster has been taken from the Canadian venture Center for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) in Toronto. Over the past decade, CCRM has built a strong brand and global reputation in ATMPs around its sustainable model of company creation tied to biomanufacturing capability and strategic investment. According to Jim Lund, “To leverage the model fully and maximize benefit to Canada, CCRM is scaling its model both nationally and internationally by establishing CCRM-like hubs that emulate the structure, playbook and pathway to sustainability described above. Each of the hubs is intended to be self-sustainable and to realize benefits for its own set of local stakeholders.”
The grand vision, however, is that further synergies will be realized by linking the hubs together into a global network of hubs that will scale investment, maximize collaboration, and facilitate access to global markets. Jim Lund also says, “Like Canada, Sweden is a leader in science with many innovative companies that would contribute to the sustainability of a Nordic CCRM Hub.”
The vision is that CCRM Nordic will evolve into a Nordic collaboration, with ongoing activities in all Nordic countries.”
The vision is that CCRM Nordic will evolve into a Nordic collaboration, with ongoing activities in all Nordic countries. “We would all benefit from sharing know-how, investor networks and infrastructure,” adds Fredrik Wessberg.
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His and his colleagues’ primary focus is now to ensure that CCRM Nordic will deliver on their high level outcomes to attract new funding and investments in the area, to provide a return on the government’s investment by launching, scaling and attracting companies within the ecosystem, delivering high quality jobs and finally by accelerating the translation of revolutionary ATMPs so that they can be used to treat patients with significant unmet needs.
“If we can manage that, we will have simultaneously met our hopes and expectations,” concludes Jim Lund.
