Nordic Life Science 1
HIGHLIGHTS // NLSDAYS NLSDAYS 2025 was arranged a
t Svenska mässan in Gothenburg on October 13-14. Nordic Life Science was there to cover, report and bring you some of the highlights. A S THE LARGEST LIFE SCIENCE partnering conference in the Nordics, NLSDays brings together Nordic and international experts to explore the latest industry trends and create new business opportunities. This was the first time the event was held in Gothenburg and this year also marked a record number of 12 international delegations, including first-time participants from Korea, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Poland. Women’s health and neuroscience NLS also had the opportunity to visit some of the super sessions and workshops. First out was a session on “transforming CVRM [Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolic] health: the future of metabolic medicine”. The panelists, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, CSO and Head of IDEA at Novo Nordisk, Regina Fritsche Danielson, Senior VP and Global Head of R&D CVRM diseases at AstraZeneca, and Hai Zhang, Senior Director Business Development at Roche, discussed the latest breakthroughs, new treatments, and emerging technologies shaping the future of CVRM and metabolic health. This is a hot topic and it was very interesting to learn more about what lies ahead and the hurdles in this field. The afternoon continued with a supersession on “Beyond the gap: advancing women’s health”. Sanna Brun Jensen, Senior Associate at BioInnovation Institute (BII) and Eva Johnsson, CMO and VP Clinical Development at Gesynta Pharma shared their efforts in growing and developing startups focusing on women’s health (BII) and developing new therapies for endometriosis (Gesynta). NLS also had the chance to listen to the supersession “New frontiers in neuroscience”. During this session, Martin Jönsson, CEO, AlzeCure Pharma, Niels Plath, CSO, Muna Therapeutics, Hugh Nuthall, EV Search and Evaluation, Eli Lilly and Company, and Lennart Spindler, Senior Analyst, SV Health Managers LLP, discussed the evolution of the CNS field in the Nordic region and the field’s challenges and opportunities. Spindler, commenting on the Nordic CNS efforts, stated that “the Nordics has kept the CNS flame alight”, emphasizing the importance of Nordic scientists’ dedication and our ecosystems in order to succeed. The panelists also emphasized that we need more Nordic funding in this field. Two awards Awards were also announced during the event. Danish life science company Vesper Bio took home the NLSDays Nordic Star 2025 Award, consisting of a EUR 10,000 cash prize and two tickets to next year’s event. Fourteen pre-selected startups competed in the Nordic Star Pitch competition. Vesper Bio is a clinical stage biotech developing an oral therapy for frontotemporal dementia. N LSDays also welcomed academic researchers and SMEs to showcase their ideas with commercial potential in the form of posters. Nineteen innovators were selected and the winning exhibitor, Veltio Pharma, specializes in enhancing pharmaceutical formulations with a strong focus on sustainability, and presented with a poster titled: “De-Risking Product Development and Shortening Time to Market”. Voices from the floor NLS also spoke to some of the many exhibitors and visitors at NLSDays 2025. The general perception was that the strength of this event is the opportunity it provides those in the industry to meet each other, network, and gain visibility. Another opinion shared by many was that there are a lot of opportunities for investors but perhaps not as many opportunities for sparking up other kinds of business collaborations, and that there were not that many big pharmaceutical companies present. A final take-home message was that the life science industry is large, multifaceted and growing very rapidly, and NLSDays is a great place to gain an overview of what’s going on in the Nordics. Next year’s NLSDays will be held in Stockholm at the beginning of September. NLS NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG | 95