Nordic Life Science 1
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THE FOOTSTEPS of their predecessors, the new generation of Icelandic life science entrepreneurs are converting their old problems of isolation and a limited workforce into a model system for developing novel therapies and tools to streamline healthcare. social democracy. Diminutive, certainly, but a per capita global champion in innovation and much else. The local life sciences industry has both I CELAND IS AN island with vast resources, few people, and an unforgiving climate. For most of its history, its lively tectonics, isolation, and tiny population have been more of an existential threat than a source of prosperity. But since the middle of the last century, Icelanders have turned their problematic geography into a recipe for success. Access to capital, technology, 68 | NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG and – crucially – ships has enabled them to exploit their unique natural resources and develop a foundation of wealth through fishing and energy. What is more remarkable is the speed at which higher-value derivative industries were built on that knowhow, and a fully-fledged service and know-ledge economy soon emerged. Within three generations, Iceland transformed from a nation of poor sheepfarmers to an educated, modern, wealthy, exemplified and exploited this dynamic and dynamism. Although the industry itself is part of the diversification from fishing and energy, it too began thirty years ago by focusing on unique local resources and conditions. These early companies included deCODE genetics, whose founding in 1995 effectively marked the birth of the life science industry. Its bioinformatics analyzed DNA samples provided by citizens in tandem with the country's genealogical records, thus pioneering the field of population genomics. Orf was founded in 2001 to grow recombinant proteins in Icelandic barley plants grown in greenhouses powered by geothermal electricity, while