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PEACE // EVENT “NOW IS THE TIME B ARBRO EHNBOM, t
he founder of SALSS, and her team had invited dignitaries from science, life science and healthcare to participate in a manifestation for peace and solidarity. The day of the conference began with inspiring speeches from Anna König Jerlmyr, the former Mayor of Stockholm, and Jonas Hafström, the former Swedish Ambassador to the United States. Dr. William Haseltine Chair and President of Access Health International, joined the conference digitally from the United States. He gave a very inspiring speech about the developments in the pharma industry during the past 20 years, and he also shared his thoughts about the future of the pharma industry. The future of precision medicine A Precision Medicine panel discussion began with a presentation from Dr. Thomas Sakmar, Professor from the Rockefeller University, where he highlighted that the future of precision medicine and drug discovery within this field is bright. Dr. Sakmar stated that there are over a thousand human genes associated with disease, and yet only a hundred of these genes have been discovered as drug targets. Later, Dr. Mathias Uhlén, Professor in Human Microbiology at KTH, presented his perspectives on precision medicine and emphasized that early blood testing for specific biomarkers can facilitate early cancer detection and dramatically increase the rate of patient survival. After their presentations, Dr. Sakmar and Dr. Uhlén had a fruitful discussion by answering questions from the audience. In between the main presentations, Akthelia Pharma, BioArctic, CELLINK, Devyser, EpiEndo and LIDDS Pharma presented their exciting breakthroughs to the SALSS guests, and formed new business relationships with investors and other partners. Later in the program, Dr. Tim Opler, Partner and Co-Founder of Torreya Partners, also gave the audience a business perspective on the life science industry. He brought to everyone’s attention that the top tech companies today are worth much more than top healthcare companies. There is a need to evolve the traditional pharma business model. “We must address the diseases by integrating innovative technologies and AI in order to have a better understanding of the patient’s subclinical status, as well as have better endpoints and response algorithms,” he said. In addition, according to Dr. Opler, the most attractive TO COME TOGETHER TO SHOW THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE WE HAVE REACHED AND HOW TO BRING IT INTO THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE.” BARBRO EHNBOM areas within healthcare to build a trillion-dollar value company are bioelectronics, pan-health screening, consumer-centric care, and crop sciences. The need for medicines that prevent disease A Hot Chairs: Tomorrow’s Healthcare panel discussion included Ms. Sana Alajmovic, Founder and CEO of Sigrid Therapeutics, Mr. Andre Watson, Founder and CEO of Ligandal, and Ms. Cecilia Edebo, CEO of CELLINK. The three executives discussed how their companies are contributing toward the future of healthcare. An interesting topic highlighted by the panel was the need for medicines that prevent disease, but that there is not much investment in this area. Most current medicines aim to treat and not prevent, which contributes to late detection and lower survival rates. Perspective, personal experiences and a touching remembrance During the event's Panel, Mr. Ola Rosling, CEO of Gapminder Foundation, gave the audience an interactive presentation of the common misconceptions people have about the world. “We tend to believe that everything is worse than it actually is, and there needs to be more education surrounding these topics. No matter how underdeveloped healthcare in third world countries is compared to the West, it has drastically improved,” he stated. Dr. Florence Haseltine, Professor from the University of Texas at Arlington, and Dr. Yuval Binur, Managing Partner of Arsuf Global Partners, joined Mr. Ola Rosling in discussing the current state of affairs in the world and their personal experiences. Bruno Cohen, Chairman of NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 83