Nordic Life Science 1
of the event began with the announcement of the w
inners of the Nordic Life Science Awards. The winner of the Academic Class Award was Patrik Hollos of Åbo Akademi University/Spark Finland, for his development of breakthrough technology for the early detection of Parkinson’s Disease. The research of Hollos and his team addresses a great medical need and has proven exciting, which has also been acknowledged by the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Not only is there high commercial value, but the technology is likely to lower barriers to further investment in drug discovery for Parkinson’s, as well as bring long-lasting value to afflicted individuals and their families. This 2019 Company Award – as well as the Delegates’ Choice Award – went to Elypta for their achievement in combining distinguished science and technology to create a disruptive platform for the early detection of cancer. Elypta’s high-end technology holds the potential to greatly benefit patients by lowering the burden of disease and improving how cancer is currently managed, thus dramatically lowering health care costs. The next morning started off with the first super session, on the theme of Financing and with the title “From seed to market; maintaining a sustainable capital market in the Nordics”. Measured by the high level of business activities and the impressive number of companies, the Nordic life science sector is strong in an international context and has contributed to many innovations on the global market. Appropriate and timely financing is a must for Nordic life science companies in order to progress the development of their respective project pipelines. The session highlighted specific Nordic features, such as the growing number of early to mid-stage companies listed on the stock exchanges. How we can maintain a sustainable life science capital market in the Nordics was also discussed. Experts from Novo Holdings, Sciety, Button Capital, Nasdaq OMX, DNB, Industrifonden and Hadean Ventures shared their expertise and advice. For example, Adam Kostyál, Senior Vice President at Nasdaq OMX, told the audience about the differences in life science financing in the Nordic countries. He said that Sweden was at the forefront and that we have to try to create the same dynamics in the other markets and establish cross-border collaboration exchange. The speakers also discussed when a company is ready for an IPO and they agreed that you must have a clear business strategy, you must have summarized your goals and thought about how you can manage the risks. Ingrid Teigland Akay, Managing Partner at Hadean Ventures, advised companies to look at the pros and cons before aiming for an IPO. She also advised seeking for business angels who know the sector – otherwise companies will have a hard time estimating the risks. The second super session of the day focused on Neuroscience and had the title of “Latest developments in neurosciences R&D”. CNS diseases continue to pose immense burdens on both patients and society as a whole, but despite enormous amount of research most current treatments only temporarily improve symptoms. What is needed to accelerate the development? Who is willing to invest in the neuroscience development projects despite the setbacks? And can we expect breakthroughs in the coming years that will change the way we address the neurosciences area? International experts shared their views on what is expected and what is possible based on currently available knowledge. Jina Elise Swartz, Global Clinical Development at MSD, started off by telling the audience about the complexity of the CNS and that we throughout history and still today have addressed symptoms rather than the cause in neurodegenerative disorders. There have also been a lot of failures along the way, but she also included recent progress and promising advances. Per-Ola Freskgård, Vice Director and Distinguished Scientist Neurosciences at pRED Roche Innovation Center in Basel, spoke about his and his colleagues’ research with biologics and the blood brain barrier. Only 1 in 3300 mAb enters the brain and we need to do something, he said. At pRED they have developed a brain shuttle technology concept. NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 107