From Valneva to the CEO position at NorthX – “I saw it as a great opportunity”

A new cell therapy for leukaemia, a vaccine in tablet form against cholera, and a proprietary mRNA line with the potential capacity to supply the entire Nordic region with vaccines during a future pandemic. These are some of the projects underway at NorthX Biologics – under the direction of new CEO Janet Hoogstraate.

KI’s new super machine measures brain activity in real-time – “A very expensive hairdo”

Using brand-new, super-advanced equipment, researchers at Karolinska Institutet can now measure brain activity in real-time, with higher resolution than previously possible. “This opens up fantastic opportunities”, says brain researcher Daniel Lundqvist.

Ingrid Lönnstedt: Demystification of the power of a scientific study

”You surely do realize that even the smallest changes in study assumptions may influence the estimated sample size needed. And how is it even possible to guess the magnitude of the treatment effect before performing the study?” writes Ingrid Lönnstedt in a column.

”Information security must become part of the Swedish life science strategy”

Sweden needs knowledge security to stand strong in the global competition, writes Björn Ursing in an opinion article.

Ingrid Lönnstedt: What does the p-value mean?

The smaller the better, and preferably smaller than 0.05. A p-value smaller than 5% means that the treatment effect is statistically significant at 5% significance level. But what does that mean? Read Ingrid Lönnstedt´s column to learn more.

Avancerade terapier på frammarsch – ”Utmaningarna är stora”

Utvecklingen av läkemedel för avancerad terapi sker snabbt och runt om i landet startas nu flera centrum för att tillgängliggöra den nya läkemedelsgruppen. Möjligheterna är enorma men utmaningarna är också stora.

The Swedish Academy of Sciences: “We have too many researchers”

Sweden does not need more researchers, but it does need better ones. According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, funding should be distributed to favour excellence.

Founder of Bioarctic, Lars Lannfelt, is honoured: “I want to create something for the future”

It´s like a scientist’s dream: to be the world’s first with a drug that genuinely affects one of our major diseases. Lars Lannfelt and his company Bioarctic have achieved just that, and they are thus making a significant contribution to the history of Swedish medicine. He is now being awarded the Research!Sweden Award 2023.

High-tech companies are increasingly focusing on health

Tech companies have been taking an interest in healthcare for many years, and this interest seems to be increasing. “It’s not a sudden shift in trend, it’s more about them advancing their positions,” says Anna Lefevre Skjöldebrand, CEO of Swedish Medtech.

Rickard Sandberg on this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine: ”A key discovery”

The discovery that paved the way for the development of todays mRNA vaccines is the basis for this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Optimism på Xspray efter uppgörelse i patenttvist

En uppgörelse uppges ha nåtts i patenttvisten mellan svenska forskningsbolaget Xspray Pharma och läkemedelsjätten Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) om cancerkandidaten Dasynoc.

Small robots to deliver pharmaceuticals to the body

Robots that can operate inside the body and a platform that combines ultrasound with AI. These are a couple of the technologies that have qualified for a list that aims to promote sustainable entrepreneurship.

Rapid developments in AI – “All stakeholders are struggling to understand it”

Artificial intelligence is being discussed more and more, and developments in the field are moving rapidly. As the Swedish Medical Products Agency testifies, keeping up with developments is not easy.

The first Lyme disease vaccine faces a delay

Pfizer and Valneva’s Lyme disease vaccine, which could be the first of its kind, is facing delays of about a year. The reason is problems at trial sites in the United States, which have forced the companies to drop half of the participants in an ongoing Phase III study.

Major advances in IVF labs in the last few decades

Since the introduction of in vitro fertilisation several decades ago, many developments have been made in the field, and the main part of that development has taken place in the lab.

Bör vi vara oroliga att AI tar över våra jobb?

Ingen kan ha undgått att det pratas om AI, artificiell intelligens, överallt. Men bör vi vara oroliga för våra jobb när AI gör entré?

“An entire industry is about to be wiped out”

According to Jennie Ekbeck, CEO of Umeå Biotech Incubators, Sweden risks not having any small diagnostic companies left in five years.

Medivir i möte med FDA: "Positiv återkoppling"

Forskningsbolaget Medivir har genomfört ett så kallat pre-IND-möte med den amerikanska läkemedelsmyndigheten FDA.

“Photon counting in computed tomography is the holy grail”

Erik Fredenberg, a researcher in physics at KTH and GE, is working to implement photon-counting CT in clinics. To shorten lead times and reduce the radiation dose in patients, he is setting out to develop a framework for virtual clinical trials for the technology.

Stort vetenskapsmöte igång i Life City

Marie Gårdmark: Potential step change – EU regulators get to play with data

A new pilot from EMA is starting in September to assess wether the analysis of 'raw data' by regulatory authorities improves the evaluation of marketing approval for new medicines. Marie Grådmark writes in a column that she is looking forward to the outcome of the pilot to hopefully then understand if “in house” analyses actually will add value.

Amorphous materials take centre stage when Orexo develops new formulations

Swift resolution but with maintained stability. Orexo’s new drug delivery platform tackles the problem of amorphous materials. “Our technology has the positive properties of the material, and it also cracks some of the problems,” says the company’s Research and Development Manager Robert Rönn.

Collaboration for a simpler production of gene therapies launched

A collaboration between universities and companies aims at providing better production methods for the development of gene therapies. The initiative is led by Johan Rockberg, Professor at KTH.

IVI’s Director General on establishing in Sweden: Will need up to 40 employees

The International Vaccine Institute, IVI, hopes to have its first staff on-site in Stockholm within a couple of months, says the institute’s Director General Jerome Kim in an interview with Life Science Sweden.