Nordic Life Science 1
Elsa Abranches, Senior Director, Head of Cell The
rapy Bioprocess, AstraZeneca, Fredrik Wessberg, CEO, CCRM Nordic, Janet Hoogstraate, CEO, NorthX Biologics, and Mark Farmery, CDO, Anocca. Two awards for two different competitions were also handed out during the last day of the event, the Nordic Star Pitch Award and the Innovation Poster Award. The pitch competition welcomed 20 SMEs from across the Nordics, each of which gave a four-minute pitch on stage to the jury and an audience of investors. Swedish company MyCural Therapeutics took home the award, consisting of a EUR 10,000 cash prize and two tickets to next year’s event. MyCural Therapeutics was founded by cancer researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Linköping University, and Uppsala University. I n addition to the pitch competition, 22 academic researchers and SMEs from Nordic academia and industry were also selected to present posters outlining a project with commercial potential. Giacomo Roman from Oslo University Hospital, Norway, won the innovation poster competition with his poster “Autologous cellbased therapy for coagulation factor deficiency”. Hot topics As always, the event included many super sessions and workshops, covering hot topics in the industry and providing interesting discussions and reflections from industry leaders and experts. We attended most of them and one of the highlights was the cell and gene therapy manufacturing workshop, organized by Anocca. Elsa Abranches, Senior Director and Head of Cell Therapy Bioprocess at AstraZeneca, Janet Hoogstraate, CEO of NorthX Biologics, Fredrik Wessberg, CEO of CCRM Nordic, and Mark Farmery, CDO of Anocca, discussed different challenges within the field. For example, there were discussions on 84 | NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG how the sector can attract and retain talent with the right skillsets (as Hoogstraate put it: skills in both hands and brain). The very hot topic of artificial intelligence within life sciences was also highlighted. A super session called Unveiling the Future: Life Science Industry and Healthcare in the Age of AI, provided the audience with a better sense of the great things AI actually can do within life sciences, and the opportunities there are in the Nordics. In a workshop organized by Cognizant, Generative AI in the Life Science Industry, experts explored how AI can streamline anything from workflows to expedited drug discovery, and propel the industry towards a future of unprecedented efficiency. Other topics highlighted during the two-day conference were the next big thing within big pharma, reaching patients with your products, preparing a clinical trial, and not least, the challenge of getting financing and how to attract more international investors to the Nordics. Exhibition arena The event also included several sessions taking place in the exhibition arena highlighting, for example, the life science sectors in the Netherlands, France, Gothenburg, and Medicon Valley. These were well-planned and easy to access and listen to. Face-to-face conversations A final take-home message from NLSDays 2024 is the importance of meeting each other in person, to talk, laugh, discuss, learn, and ask each other questions. The life science industry is large, multifaceted, and fast growing, and NLSDays is a great place for everybody to get an overview of what’s going on in the Nordics and meet each other face-toface. NLS EVENT // HIGHLIGHTS PHOTO CAMILLE SONALLY