Henrik Asheim, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, spoke of plans for research at Oslo Cancer Cluster's annual summer gathering.

Visions for cancer innovation in Norway

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Man in suit looking into camera

Oslo Cancer Cluster gathered the Norwegian oncology community for a mid-year update in June.

Last week, Oslo Cancer Cluster arranged the June Gathering 2021, a digital event which was attended by members, partners and colleagues from the Norwegian oncology community. The event included updates from the organisation, presentations from several prominent speakers and introductions of new members.

Henrik Asheim, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, spoke at the event about ambitious plans for Norwegian research and praised Oslo Cancer Cluster for giving important input on a Norwegian cancer mission.

“Oslo Cancer Cluster has already suggested Norway launch a cancer mission, with a specific goal of reducing the time from when clinical trials with new drugs start, to when those drugs can be part of standard patient treatment in hospitals.” Henrik Asheim

Watch the entire speech here:

Ketil Widerberg, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster, echoed the importance of putting Norway on the cancer map internationally, by using Norwegian advantages.

“We can use our health data to accelerate and move the approval of medicine from an average ten to five years. We can also follow-up patients better and precision medicine enables us to do this. Norway needs its own cancer mission.” Ketil Widerberg

Welcome, new members

The three new members Bio-Me AS, Daiichi-Sankyo and OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University) expressed excitement about joining Oslo Cancer Cluster and looked forward to participating in the organisation’s activities.

Morten Isaksen, Founder and CEO of Bio-Me As, a Norwegian start-up company that is creating better diagnostic tools for microbiome profiling, spoke first.

“The whole concept of the microbiome, the gut bacteria, and how it influences health and how drugs are metabolised are creating a paradigm shift in preventive health and health in general.” Morten Isaksen

The company 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.

Isaksen was followed by Martin Ahlgren, Medical Drector at Daiichi-Sankyo, 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.

“We are in the middle of launching our first oncology brand in the Nordic market in collaboration with AstraZeneca.” Martin Ahlgren

The last speaker was Carl Christian Thodesen, Dean at the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University).

“We are thinking more about technology and health together: how we can connect what is happening in IT and mechanics with what is happening in health.” Carl Christian Thodesen

The Faculty 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 by visiting the Membership Overview and learn about our upcoming events in the Event Calendar.

Photo: NOME

Calling all life science start-ups

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Are you a Norwegian life science start-up in need of mentoring?

The Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship (NOME) offers free mentoring to promising start-ups in the life science sector. Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC) Incubator has coordinated NOME activities in Norway since 2016 and is actively seeking both start-ups and mentors to join the programme.

NOME is a not-for-profit mentoring network in the life sciences, managed by Accelerace AS. The goal of NOME is to increase the success rate of Nordic life science start-ups by giving access to experienced mentors. Participation is free of charge and funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

How does it work?

Selected start-ups are matched with 3-4 mentors to address the company’s specific challenges. These are some of the most experienced, best networked, and most influential leaders from the Nordic life science industry. The mentors volunteer their services to help start-up companies in biotech, medtech and healthtech areas to reach their goals.

Peter Birk, Accelerace

Peter Birk, Head of Business Development at Accelerace

“It is not very easy for start-ups to get access to advice from people of the level that we have in NOME. We provide a framework and facilitate help from those who know to those who need,” said Peter Birk, Head of Business Development at Accelerace.

“Several analyses of life science ecosystems confirm that access to advice from those who “have been there and done that” is a critical factor of success,” Birk continued.

 

Accelerating innovation

The NOME mentoring programme is a complement to the OCC Incubator’s other activities, facilities, and services to support start-ups in the cancer innovation field. This includes one-to-one business development advice, state-of-the-art laboratories and offices, and access to a global network of key players in the cancer field.

Ketil Widerberg, CEO, OCC Incubator

Ketil Widerberg, CEO of OCC Incubator

”To accelerate the development of new cancer treatments, we need to build the Norwegian health industry and Nordic collaboration on life science,” said Ketil Widerberg, Chief Executive Officer, Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator.

“NOME is one example of this. The start-ups get connected with the mentors they need to develop their companies and bring new innovations to the market. We hope many new life science start-ups in Norway will take advantage of this opportunity,” Widerberg continued.

 

Nordic collaboration for life science

NOME is active in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, and has an important role in connecting the entire Nordic Life Science system.

“Individually we are all small countries, but together we have critical mass and represent a very significant stronghold for life sciences that gets attention from the rest of the world,” said Peter Birk.

“A good example is that there is a high interest from very experienced non-Nordic individuals from the life science industry to become NOME mentors. This would not have happened if we were just a local Norwegian, Danish or Swedish,” Birk continued.

  • Do you want to receive mentoring for your start-up? Please get in touch with Ketil Widerberg, CEO of Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator.
The laboratory where Bergenbio develops new treatments. Photographer: Nils Olav Mevatne

Cancer treatment helped corona patients

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Picture of work in the lab

Ventilator-free survival is improved for more than 50% of corona patients, by a Norwegian cancer medicine from our member Bergenbio.

A drug produced by the Norwegian biotech company Bergenbio can be effective against serious corona disease. The drug was originally developed to treat cancer and has been in clinical testing since the beginning of the pandemic.

A recent clinical trial showed that fewer hospitalised corona patients needed to go on a ventilator after receiving the medicine. The results were presented in a press release from Bergenbio last week.

During the clinical trial, 58 hospitalised covid-19 patients in India and South Africa received the drug. The patients had a less complicated hospital stay and less need for ventilator treatment.

Ventilator-free survival was increased for more than half of the patients. Ventilator-free survival means surviving to day 29 without admission to intensive care unit and need for ventilator-assisted breathing.

“The potential of bemcentinib to increase the rate of ventilator-free survival in more than 50% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients is very encouraging,” Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, commented.

The trial also showed the drug has the same effect on mutations of the coronavirus.

Need for covid-19 treatments

There is still a large unmet need for effective treatments of covid-19. Seriously ill covid-19 patients end up hospitalised in intensive care units (ICU) and may need to be put on ventilators.

“The greatest challenge faced by hospitals worldwide is an unmanageable demand for ICU capacity and ventilator support for COVID-19 patients,” Professor emeritus Stener Kvinnsland MD PhD, Director of BerGenBio and former Chair of Norwegian Korona Commission, commented.

“For the foreseeable future, in spite of recent progress with vaccinations, there remains a substantial global need for effective treatments for COVID-19 patients that offers survival benefit and relief for intensive care demand on hospitals,” Kvinnsland continued.

A Norwegian invention

Bergenbio is a Norwegian biotech company with a research team based in Bergen and a clinical development team based in Oxford.

The company has identified a protein called AXL that exists on the surface of cells. The AXL protein plays an important role when the immune system fails. It keeps cells resistant to treatment and can conceal cells from the body’s immune system.

Bergenbio has developed a drug that turns off the AXL signals, which makes treatment more effective as the immune system can be activated.

The drug was developed as a cancer treatment and was in phase 2 of clinical testing when it was selected for the ACCORD programme, a large clinical study against covid-19.

Carlos de Sousa, CEO of Ultimovacs. Photo: Ultimovacs

Cancer vaccine effective for 60% of patients

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Picture of Carlos de Sause, CEO of ultimovacs

60% of melanoma patients responded to universal cancer vaccine, according to new data from our member Ultimovacs.

A clinical trial against advanced melanoma (a serious form of skin cancer) has shown positive effects in 60% of all patients. The Phase I clinical trial is led by our member Ultimovacs, a Norwegian company that develops vaccines against cancer.

“These very strong and exciting data further strengthen the foundation for our broad Phase II clinical program for UV1,” said Jens Bjørheim, Chief Medical Officer at Ultimovacs.

The cancer treatment is a universal cancer vaccine called UV1 in combination with an immunotherapy drug called pembrolizumab. The results of the treatment show a 60% objective response rate in patients with advanced melanoma. This includes 30% complete responses and 30% partial responses.

The potential of immunotherapy

The reason for choosing this treatment is that immunotherapy has good effect on melanoma patients and many new combinations of immunotherapy show great potential.

Immunotherapy mobilises the cancer patient’s own immune system to identify and kill the cancer cells.

The melanoma patients often don’t have the right T cells present in their bodies to experience the full effect of the immunotherapy pembrolizumab.

T cells are part of the immune system, help to protect the body from infection and may help to fight cancer.

The cancer vaccine UV1 increases the number of the right T cells so a stronger and broader immune response can be achieved, in combination with pembrolizumab.

Accepted to ASCO

The data will be presented at a poster session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 Annual Meeting – the world’s largest cancer conference – on 4-8 June. The poster presentation will also be published on Ultimovacs website.

“These data reinforce our conviction that UV1 can play a transformative role in the treatment of conditions such as malignant melanoma,” said Carlos de Sousa, CEO of Ultimovacs.

“It suggests that UV1 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors like pembrolizumab can mobilize the immune system to fight cancer. This is very encouraging for melanoma patients and for those involved with the roll-out of Ultimovacs’ broader programs in solid cancers,” de Sousa continued.

Read more in the press release from Ultimovacs.