Nordic Life Science 1
44 he Nordic countries’ life science industry ben
efits from a costeffective healthcare system that takes care of people and has numerous successful companies and people thanks to, for example, the Medicon Valley region. “We have a culture of innovation and business with a business culture that capitalizes on innovation,” says Gitte. But growth is hampered by limited funding. “We don’t invest enough money to pivot internationally – that is a European thing, not just a Nordic thing,” she adds. “And it’s difficult to be a small company and sell into the Danish healthcare system. We are fundamentally not risk-takers.” Neither the USA nor Denmark, she adds, are doing enough to grow female executives. “I started my own company because there is no glass ceiling in a house you build yourself,” Gitte notes. “We still live in a male-dominated world where women are discounted and measured using a different metric than men. There is not an active effort in most large corporations to change the status quo and there is a complete lack of acknowledgement that it’s a problem. I loved my time at Novo Nordisk, however, at my job interview I was asked about my reproductive plans – I almost walked out and I got into an argument with the interviewing director. I did not think I would get the job and was surprised when they called me.” “I also had a job assessment meeting where my boss patted me on the hand and suggested that I find a ‘rich’ man, get married and have children. These experiences simply reflect that women are not perceived as management material and are not groomed for it because they have children. Your job becomes a dead end. That was back in 1997. I saw a lot of very talented women’s careers stall in the process and it is one of the reasons I left. A bunch of other women left too.” Gitte Pedersen presenting at the European Parliament EUTop50 in 2018 The pandemic spurred rapid growth in the life science and medical fields and Gitte predicts future increase in the speed of innovation to deliver effective treatments. She advises other Nordic life science entrepreneurs to invent and invest in positive change for the future. “We are going to see faster improvements in healthcare over the next couple of years than we ever imagined,” she says. “Speed means we need to invest more money earlier, so this slow drip of 5 million USD here and another 10 million USD there won’t work In the USA we see a trend of 100 million USD series A. It’s okay to fail faster – some will succeed. Healthcare has been this monster that moved so slowly. If you got diagnosed with cancer today, you would die before a new drug could be approved, but that is about to change with the new mRNA vaccine and therapeutics. What we experienced during COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the timelines, but also enabled delivery of care using technology such as telehealth and at-home diagnostics. We abbreviated the time from symptom to diagnosis from weeks to fewer than 24 hours and we can deliver that without the patient leaving his or her bed.” Genomic Expression is ready and eager to be part of this expansion. “I am in the process of attracting key people to the team and raising growth capital to expand internationally,” Gitte says. “We are pioneering RNA sequencing as a platform for next generation cures. We are revolutionizing healthcare and life science. It is exciting!” NLS