MVA:s CEO: “Our investments should improve people´s everyday lives”
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”Det vi investerar i ska förbättra människors vardag”
The Reprounion collaboration initiative was launched ten years ago, and it aims to join forces in the Skåne and Copenhagen region against involuntary infertility. The project is coordinated by the cluster organisation Medicon Valley Alliance.
“We always strive to include academia, healthcare and businesses in our projects. Reprounion includes Lund University, Malmö University, the University of Copenhagen, the reproductive medicine centres at hospitals in the Oresund region and the pharmaceutical company Ferring,” says Petter Hartman, CEO of Medicon Valley Alliance.
Studies and the development of new treatment methods are financed within the framework of Reprounion.
“This initiative has resulted in over 100 scientific articles, international collaborations with leading research environments and the birth of over 130 children after their parents participated in research projects funded by the Reprounion partnership,” says Petter Hartman.
The parties are presently working to create a border regional biobank that researchers in reproductive medicine will be able to use jointly on both sides of the Oresund. The aim is to collect samples and data from 5,000 Swedish and Danish infertile couples over the next 8 years.
“We are currently working strenuously on the legal aspect so that this work can be carried out within the existing regulative frame. The idea is to create a unique research infrastructure that will benefit research for a long time to come.”
One of the clearest results of Reprounion is an agreement negotiated by the Medicon Valley Alliance, which will enable patients on one side of the Oresund to receive medical help on the other side, unhindered by national borders. For example, a patient in Skåne with an unusual diagnosis, which doctors in Copenhagen are skilled at treating, should be able to gothere to receive the treatment and vice versa. It should also be possible for doctors to cross the national border to treat patients on the other side of the Oresund.
Petter Hartman is one of the Speakers at the congress "The Future of Swedish and Danish Life Science" 2/9-2021.
“The patient mobility agreement clearly shows that this type of initiative helps patients. It is crucial that our investments actually improve people´s everyday lives, and that we can solve the problems that people are struggling with,” says Petter Hartman.
In recent years, the Medicon Valley Alliance has also initiated several other projects, one of which is Diaunion.
This project brings together a number of players in southern Sweden and Zealand in Denmark in the field of diabetes. They are currently working to prepare a screening programme that will be carried out in both countries.
The project is funded by the EU, and the Novo Nordisk Fund is also involved as a financier. Petter Hartman points out that the transregional screening will provide larger volumes that will be useful in medical studies.
One of the Medicon Valley Alliance projects is the Microbiome Signature Project – a project that aims to develop analysis methods for the development of the life science sector. Today, such analyses are difficult as there is no clear definition of which companies should be considered life science companies.
Are you planning major investments in other specific areas?
“We are continuously evaluating various areas. Presently, we are considering and discussing the field of oncology, and yet another field is drug delivery. In our region, we are strong in both of these fields, and we believe that our collaboration across the Oresund can make us even stronger.”
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