Nordic Life Science 1
TOP STORIES BUSINESS tors, and payors. CONNECT is
a new public-private partnership allowing all stakeholders to jointly address key obstacles and pilot novel solutions,” says Jutta Heix, Head of International Affairs, Oslo Cancer Cluster and Project Manager for CONNECT. All six university hospitals in Norway are partners in CONNECT. More than ten leading pharmaceutical companies have joined the initiative so far. As representative for patients, the Norwegian Cancer Society will play a central role. Via CONNECT a structured dialogue, information sharing and planning for national precision medicine and diagnostics will be established, with Oslo Cancer Cluster having the coordinating role. “This is a concrete and important milestone for public-private collaborations in the health sector and builds on the ambitions from, among other things, HelseOmsorg21. This is a completely new way to work in Norway and I hope it paves the way for more collaborative projects and pilots between private and public players in healthcare,” says Karita Bekkemellem, CEO, Legemiddelindustrien. NLS NORWAY Jutta Heix, Project Manager, CONNECT CONNECT, the new Norwegian initiative aims to ensure that precision medicine reaches the patients. (NORWEGIAN Precision Cancer Medicine Implementation Consortium), is one of four interconnected initiatives that will ensure infrastructure and collaboration on diagnostics, clinical trials, implementation of advanced precision medicine and use of health data e.g., for health economics analysis. This could 18 eventually affect how Nye Metoder (The National System for Managed Introduction of New Health Technologies within the Specialist Health Service in Norway) is adapted for personalized medicine and treatments for small patient groups in cancer. “Precision medicine changes healthcare. The implementation of precision medicine requires new types of interactions and partnerships among patients, clinicians, companies, regulaNORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG PHOTO STIG JARNES