Nordic Life Science 1
42 philanthropy providing healthcare for third-wo
rld countries – the latter now more important than ever with the COVID-19 pandemic. And finally Jeff Bezos for making Amazon the largest online market place in the world.” development allowed the company to jump into the COVID-19 testing market at a critical time, according to Gitte. Gitte, who holds a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, worked at Novo Nordisk in a number of positions, from R&D to Marketing, before she founded Proximity Ventures, an advisory firm that assisted biotech companies in Scandinavia enter the U.S. market as well as assisting the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attract investments into the Danish Biotech industry. In 2015 she started Genomic Expression, together with her brother, Morten Pedersen. The company raised money to establish an independent lab in Boston. While getting Genomic Expression off the ground was challenging, the company has made its mark analyzing RNA to detect diseases, monitor health and design treatments, with a focus on cancer patients. This “I raised 6.5 million USD in grants, and moved an idea to a product and a launch,” she says. “We invented a new technology and a new business model and during COVID-19 pivoted from being a research and development company to a fully commercial diagnostic company with multiple products in the market and recurring customers.” Its RNA research helped the company develop more efficient tests for the virus. “We have proven we can use our unique chemistry to pool many samples, which could further reduce cost. Finally, we signed a licensing agreement with Yale University to move the test into saliva, which enables self-testing that reduces risk to healthcare providers and individuals,” Gitte says. Her other major challenge, she says, was having two children while working in the USA, without maternity leave. “That was hard. But I managed by hiring help and working part-time for a while.” Gitte has found more similarities than differences when it comes to working in the two nations of Denmark and the USA. “It’s the differences that we often focus on,” she says. “I also believe that diversified teams are superior to teams that bring the same background to the table, both when it comes to gender and to culture. It’s when the ‘truth’ you live by is challenged that you grow the most. It is also the hardest.” ooking back at her career, Gitte reflects that Denmark has a more “hands-off” work culture, which she enjoyed. “It’s much more empowering. In Denmark, I got a project and set up meetings. I was constantly stimulated at Novo Nordisk. Gitte Pedersen In the USA, my manager wanted me to check in on a weekly basis and I had to explain what I was doing. It was something I had to get used to,” she describes. “People are also less territorial about jobs in Denmark. In the USA I got reprimanded for working on someone else’s problem, but she was on vacation and we were running out of the product, I thought it was important to fix it and my customers depended on it,” Gitte adds.