Nordic Life Science 1
Although the majority of Ilya’s financing does no
t come from the Nordic region – they get a lot of European Union funding – the Nordic countries are always well-prepared when it comes to research, says Vågesjö. “In Sweden, the number of spinoff companies from academia is growing.” 42 As for her own work, Vågesjö says she is passionate about finding the optimal financing and strategy for projects, giving drug candidates the best possible chance in clinical trials. She says that the favorite part of her job comes, “When I’ve been working on very complex projects and they come out right and we will have a new-to-the-world drug compound, and when we get confirmation of success after completing larger milestones.” Within ten years, the objectives are that at least one of the ILP-drug candidates has been marketed and delivers clinical value to patients and society, and that its use limits the spread of antibiotic resistance, Evelina Vågesjö says. When she is not at Ilya, Vågesjö, who is married, enjoys exercising outdoors and spending time with old friends, “The ones who will tell you if you are wrong in a millisecond.” Just as she has taken a different approach to researching potential treatments, Vågesjö says she would strive to take care in the message conveyed to upcoming researchers. “Science matters every step of the way, throughout the whole journey,” she says. “You have a responsibility to take care of all your scientific findings. Many people have said to those starting companies ‘That is a lot of work’, ’that will be difficult’, and that is mostly just jargon. I will never say that. I will help them find the next step to get better.” NLS