Meet our new members

Meet the members who recently joined or re-joined our cluster.

A warm welcome to our newest members! Oslo Cancer Cluster’s diverse member base includes university hospitals, research centres, patient organizations, start-ups, biotech and technology companies, global pharma, investors, financial institutions, and service providers. Together, they cover the whole spectrum of oncology, contributing to a unique ecosystem that accelerates the development of innovative cancer treatments. Oslo Cancer Cluster works tirelessly together with our members to enhance the development of novel cancer diagnostics and therapies to improve patients’ lives worldwide.

We are proud to announce that the following companies have recently joined our cluster:

 

ARTBIO

Cody

Exact Sciences

Fortrea

Link Medical

Surviva

We had the opportunity to speak with the companies this week and let them introduce themselves. Read on to learn more about why they joined the cluster, and what they’re currently working on:

 

Artbio

ARTBIO is a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company redefining cancer care by creating a new class of alpha radioligand therapies (ARTs). Alpha radioligand therapeutics are gaining attention as a promising experimental modality for delivering lethal radioactivity directly to cancer cells. The unique ARTBIO approach selects the optimal alpha-precursor isotope (Pb-212) and tumour-specific targets to create therapeutics with the potential for the highest efficacy and safety. ARTBIO is currently advancing multiple pipeline programs with lead program AB001 first in human trials. ARTBIO is shaped by a long-standing scientific legacy with nearly a century of pioneering work in radiation therapy conducted at the University of Oslo and Norway’s Radium Hospital.

We are excited to be accepted as members of Oslo Cancer Cluster and look forward to collaborating with this rich ecosystem of leading healthcare institutions, researchers, and innovative stakeholders to empower patient-centric advances in cancer care, says Conrad Wüller, Director of strategy and operations

 

 

Cody

Cody is a Norwegian company developing products, lab equipment and production machinery. With a core competence in mechanical engineering and advanced automation. Cody has extensive experience in developing tailor-made GMP production and packaging solutions for radiopharmaceuticals and other pharmaceuticals. Cody works closely with their customers in the various phases of the development processes to find efficient, robust, and safe production solutions for both the clinical stages and commercial production.

We are excited about the growing number of radiopharmaceutical companies in Norway, and we will do our part in bringing the products to production. Cody has been working in the radio pharma industry since 2011, and we are now looking forward to being a part of Oslo Cancer Cluster, make new connections, and create new opportunities together, says Ken Andre Kihle, CEO

 

 

Exact Sciences

Exact Sciences is a provider of cancer screening and diagnostic tests, focusing on cancer prevention, early detection, and personalised treatment. Their invention Cologuard and Oncotype DX (ODX) tests have seen success in various markets. The tests, now available in Norway, received a favourable Single Technology Assessment (STA) from the National Institute of Public Health (FHI) in October 2023. The company awaits the final decision by the Decision Forum (Beslutningsforum) for ODX to be publicly available and reimbursed across all Norwegian Cancer Clinics. ODX predicts chemotherapy benefits, identifying a significant portion of Breast Cancer patients (HR+/HER2-neg) who can avoid unnecessary adjuvant chemotherapy, reducing side effects and improving quality of life.

As a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster, we align with our commitment to enhancing the lives of cancer patients through the accelerated development of new diagnostics and treatments. Our focus on precision medicine and personalized treatment decisions is shared by the Cluster, and we value being a part of the collaborative and innovative environment, says Glenn Gundersen, Country Manager and PhD.

 

Fortrea

Fortrea is a clinical research organization that specializes in developing treatments for cancer patients. The company has a long history in clinical development and draws on expertise from its predecessors, Covance and Labcorp Drug Development. In July 2023, Fortrea became an independent company and now has a dedicated team of over 2,400 oncology specialists, including 60 medical oncologists. They work with more than 30,000 cancer centers in 90 countries and have experience in over 40 different types of cancer. With their experiences and dedicated team, Fortrea possesses the necessary insights, experience, scale, and processes to expedite the delivery of new treatments to cancer patients.

Fortrea is well-equipped to assist Oslo Cancer Cluster members in advancing their assets through clinical research and onto the next stage of development, thanks to our extensive scale and experience, says Norma Aspajo Vidal, the Director of Business Development

 

Link Medical

LINK Medical is a leading clinical research organization and regulatory service provider offering a wide range of expertise, flexible services, and innovative technologies for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries across Northern Europe and beyond. LINK Medical was founded in Oslo in 1995, and has over 145 dedicated colleagues in the Nordics, UK, and Germany, with a variety of specialist backgrounds. LINK Medical wants to help Oslo Cance Cluster members with a local presence in their development of cancer treatment and diagnostics. With their long experience in conducting complex clinical trials, and over 90 oncology studies. In addition, Link Medical’s regulatory team has extensive experience with supporting all stages of medical product development.

We are so delighted to once again be a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster, and we look forward to supporting the product development journey of Oslo Cancer Cluster members in their endeavours to help improve the lives of patients. Our vision is to advance health innovations, and we truly believe that LINK Medical continues to play an important role in the eco-system of developing life-saving products, says Sissel Lønning Andresen, CEO.

 

Surviva

SurViva is a consultancy firm based in Norway that specializes in providing quality assurance (QA) services and digital quality management systems (eQMS) to clients in the food, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries. They offer customized quality packages to meet the specific needs of individual companies. The company’s goal is to promote activity and value creation in Norway by helping life science companies develop and professionalize their systems and processes. SurViva shares the vision of the Oslo Cancer Cluster to accelerate cancer treatments and diagnostics that improve patients’ lives.

We believe we can contribute to this goal by reducing barriers, saving time and costs for companies, and enabling accelerated development of new cancer treatments, shares Astrid Hilde Myrset, CEO.

 

Nordic Life Science Days 2023

This year’s Nordic Life Science Days took place in Copenhagen on 29-30 November.

Since 2015, Oslo Cancer Cluster has coordinated the joint booth Norway for Life Science, promoting the Norwegian healthcare and life science industry. This year together with Norway Health Tech, The Life Science Cluster, Norwegian Smart Care Cluster, Centre for Digital Life Norway, NorTrials, Aleap, Legemiddelindustrien (LMI), Inven2, Innovation Norway, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Copenhagen and Curida.

 

The Oslo Cancer Cluster team representing and networking in Copenhagen. From Left: Charlotte Homme, Dave Tippett, Thomas Andersson (Business Development, OCC Incubator), Janne Nestvold (COO, OCC Incubator) and Bente Prestegård.

Our members on stage

Anette Weyergang, CEO at RAB Diagniostics, a new company that works towards making cancer treatment more effective and match the right patient with the right drug. RAB Diagniostics is a part of Oslo Cancer Clusters Incubator accelerator program which provide the project with business development.

 RAB diagnostics Anette Weyergang at Nordic Life Science Days 2023 in Copenhagen

RAB diagnostics CEO Anette Weyergang at Nordic Life Science Days 2023 in Copenhagen.

 

Weyergang is a pharmacist by education and has spent her career since 2004 in Professor Kristian Berg’s research group at the Institute for Cancer Research.

It was great fun pitching RAB Diagniostics in this environment at NLS days, I wish I had more than 4 minutes on stage to talk about our ongoing mission, which is to help finding the right patients so that we can spare those who are less likely to respond to unnecessary treatments.

Find more information about RAB Diagnostics here

 

Adam Robertson CEO at Hemispherian, pitching at NLSDays 2023.

Adam Robertson, Chief Scientific Officer at Hemispherian, was thrilled to present at Nordic Life Science days. Hemispherian is an innovative preclinical pharmaceutical company focused on developing a novel class of small molecule drugs.

Presenting at NLS Days was an exciting experience. I am glad that so many participants were able to attend. Being a part of such high calibre pitches is hugely motivating.

Hemispherian is at the forefront of revolutionizing cancer treatment, offering hope and potential solutions for patients facing hard-to-treat cancers, especially glioblastoma. The company will enter clinical development in 2024. Robertson shares that Hemispherian’s drug candidates have shown excellent efficacy including in orthotopic glioblastoma xenograft models, as well as excellent tolerability in several animal models.

Find more information about Hemispherian here

 

 

Torbjørn Furuseth, CEO and Co-founder of DoMore Diagnostics.

Torbjørn Furuseth, CEO and co-founder of DoMore! Diagnostics, presented the latest development and new results from tthis years research and projects.

Find more information about DoMore! Diagnostics here

 

Hanne Lund, Business Development Director at Curida pitching on stage at NLS Days.

Hanne Lund, Business Development Director at Curida, talked about the newest updates from the company in 2023.

Find more information about Curida here

 

 

 

Image of Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park

Meet the new members from 2021

Last year, we had the pleasure of welcoming 14 new members to Oslo Cancer Cluster.

In this brief overview, we are proud to introduce the new ensemble of cutting-edge cancer and science-related businesses – and a university.

 

Bio-Me AS has created a platform for precision microbiome profiling, which takes the vast knowledge of the microbiome to something that can be used in a clinical setting.

Daiichi-Sankyo is a global pharmaceutical company originating from Japan and with European headquarters in Germany. Daiichi-Sankyo has recently also set up a Nordic headquarter in Copenhagen with more than 20 employees.

Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) is working on an exciting initiative to bring artificial intelligence (AI) and product design services together with healthcare and nursing, so that new projects can be launched in the research world.

You can read more about our members Bio-Me AS, Daiichi-Sankyo and OsloMet in this news article from June 2021.

 

Alv B is developing new immune therapy for solid cancers in cats and dogs. The new therapy will be available both as a supplement to standard treatments as well as a replacement for chemotherapy with strong side effects.

Comunin is a Norwegian start-up that provides a digital platform for smart patient monitoring and support.

Canica is a large, privately-owned investment company operating out of Norway and Switzerland, with core expertise within the fields of business development, retail, brand development and finance. It is focused on creating long-term value and employment.

Do More Diagnostics is a Norwegian start-up on a mission to transform cancer diagnostics with artificial intelligence. The goal is to improve patient care and make drug development more effective by utilizing artificial intelligence to increase the prognostic value of cancer tissue biopsies.

Glycanostics is a start-up company established in 2017 to bring its cancer diagnostics products to the EU and US markets. The company aims for early and more accurate cancer detection to prevent unnecessary biopsies and increase patient survival rate, and their product portfolio includes prostate and breast cancer non-invasive diagnostic kits and technology for glycan biomarker detection.

Hemispherian is an innovative preclinical pharmaceutical company focused on developing a novel class of small molecule drugs. These drugs target the TET2 enzyme as an epigenetic therapy for particularly aggressive cancers.

NordicRWE is a Norwegian Real-world Evidence (RWE) start-up company that has the ambition to be at the forefront of the data-driven drug development process. By tapping into the Nordic health data with its long follow-ups, incomparable completeness, and extensive linking possibilities, NordicRWE is uniquely positioned to be a key player in the forthcoming evolution of the RWE supported drug R&D.

You can read more about NordicRWE in this news article from September.

 

Norimun is a start-up and part of the OCC Incubator Accelerator programme. The company develops antibodies from the eggs of immunized hens. These IgY antibodies are currently used for passive immunization in aquaculture and livestock, as an alternative and supplement to the body’s own immune system.

Oncosyne is a start-up and part of the OCC Incubator Accelerator programme. The company will develop tests for the patient’s cancer cells and provide information about which treatments the patient will benefit from and which will not be of benefit.

OÜ Antegenes is an Estonian medical technology company founded in 2018. As a registered healthcare service provider of medical genetics, oncology and laboratory services in Estonia, the company uses high-tech polygenic risk score technology to assess a person’s genetic risk of developing cancer.

Randstad Care is dedicated to elevating the quality of talent available to meet the changing resource demands across life sciences organizations. Randstad’s recruiters combine their scientific, pharma and outsourcing expertise with an understanding of individual business needs to deliver the right talent, right away.

You can read more about our members by visiting the Membership Overview and learn about our upcoming events in the Event Calendar

Collaborating on patient self-monitoring

Patients report their own symptoms in a new project at Ahus, in which the university hospital collaborates with Roche and Kaiku Health.

A new project with 15 lung cancer patients has started this fall at Akershus University Hospital (Ahus), one of Norway’s largest hospitals, just outside of Oslo. Both the patients and the hospital staff are testing a new digital patient monitoring and management solution from the Finnish health technology company Kaiku Health, where the patients themselves are to report their symptoms and health conditions.

The project is a successful collaboration between patients and hospital staff at Ahus, the company Roche, and Kaiku Health. They are all members of Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Satisfied patients

“So far we have received almost only positive user experiences. Patients are only asked to log symptoms they have had and do not have to consider all kinds of possible symptoms they might have. That helps them and our impression is that the patients are satisfied with the self-logging tool we are testing,” said Anne Edvardsen, Project Leader and Department Leader at the Lung Department at Ahus.

Anne Edvardsen. Photo: Ahus

Anne Edvardsen. Photo: Ahus

Kaiku Health is a digital health interventions platform that provides patient-reported outcomes, monitoring, and intelligent symptom tracking. Currently, it is used in more than 75 clinics in Europe and America, helping clinicians provide optimized care with early interventions and personalized patient support.

Digital symptom management

“Digital symptom management is shown to improve patients’ overall survival and quality of life. While cancer immunotherapy has been shown to advance treatment outcomes of for example lung cancer patients, it has also introduced a new kind of safety profile. Companion digital health solutions can optimize symptom management and timely education for patients. In addition, clinics benefit from the use of the service, as digital therapy support can optimize the use of healthcare resources as well as processes in the daily clinic routine,” said Ann-Sofie Andersson-Ward, Global Strategic Sales Manager in Kaiku Health.

Ann-Sofie Andersson-Ward. Photo: Kaiku Health/ Kajsas foto

Ann-Sofie Andersson-Ward. Photo: Kaiku Health/ Kajsas foto

In Nordlandssykehuset, a smaller hospital in the north of Norway, a similar digital patient monitoring, also from Kaiku, is already a part of the regular patient treatment.

“By providing digital symptom management along with the capture and analysis of real-world data, Kaiku Health paves way for more personalised and value-based healthcare,” said Ann-Sofie Andersson-Ward.

Testing in several stages

Roche aims to deliver their digital patient monitoring and management solutions in an open ecosystem approach in collaboration with various industry partners and solution providers, such as Kaiku Health, and has done a prior pilot project with Kaiku Health in Germany, Finland, and Switzerland.

The results from this first pilot were published in Journal of Medical Internet Research in December last year and show a high user satisfaction and improved clinical care besides other benefits and a few challenges. You can read the article here. https://www.jmir.org/2020/12/e18655/

“With our current collaboration with Ahus, Roche aims to deliver industry-leading Digital Patient Monitoring and Management solutions that improve outcomes that matter to patients, such as quality of life and overall survival, for individuals receiving therapy for advanced or metastasized cancers. This can be achieved by empowering patients to continuously report symptoms from any location using mobile solutions and enabling healthcare professionals to intervene early before symptoms worsen, tailor care plans, and make effective treatment decisions. By using solutions that are seamlessly integrated into clinical care, it would also optimise healthcare resource utilization. In addition, we’re also exploring user experience of the solution alongside understanding how we can support broad adoption and adherence to the solutions,” said Fabienne O. Villars, Country Medical Manager for Lung in Roche Norway, and adds that it is also an important project to explore local requirements and regulatory needs.

Woman in white jacket looking into camera

Fabienne O. Villars. Photo: Roche

The current project is named KAISER and will run until March 2022.

Better equipped to master symptoms

“An advantage is that we can monitor the patients during the entire treatment and systemize our experiences. This kind of monitoring of symptoms through digital platforms is important to increase the understanding the patients have of their own health. When they participate in monitoring their own symptoms and changes in symptoms, they are better equipped to master their symptoms, with assistance by healthcare professionals,” said Anne Edvardsen.

The patients can use the tool as a type of diary for symptoms from cancer treatment, like for example fatigue, and the care team can look for patterns to check if treatments are working well. The hospital staff is learning how to react to the reports and whether they should follow up with the patients more closely based on the reported symptoms.

Useful in the future

“It has been a good collaboration where everyone has contributed to solving this puzzle, which takes a lot of effort ensuring privacy and data security in a large hospital like Ahus,” said Anne Edvardsen.

“The work Ahus has done in collaboration with us will become useful in the future for sure –for other hospitals, companies, and for the patients themselves,” said Villars.

Read more

Inven2 has contributed to initiating the project in Norway and has written about it in Norwegian. Read the Norwegian article here: https://www.inven2.com/prover-ut-digitalt-verktoy-for-pasientoppfolging-i-kliniske-studier/

Cluster Collaborations

In this article series, called Cluster Collaborations, we want to highlight the fruitful collaborations in the cluster, underlining the very essence of what Oslo Cancer Cluster is all about, from cancer research to cure.