Hva er viktigst, hytta eller helsen?

Ketil Widerberg, daglig leder, OCC

This opinion piece was originally published in Aftenposten on 25 June 2020. Scroll down for a version in English.

Deaktiver Smittestopp-appen med en gang – med god samvittighet, skriver Joacim Lund. Han bør heller ha dårlig samvittighet.

Smittestopp-appen samler inn bevegelsesmønstre for å spore spredningen av covid-19. Personvern står høyt, og derfor bør vi ta det alvorlig når Datatilsynet protesterer mot appens datalagring og datahåndtering. Ved stans av datainnsamling brukte kun 11 prosent av Norges befolkning den. Det er langt under de nødvendige 50 prosent for å få en reell sykdomsoversikt.

Dette står i kontrast til det at store deler av oss bruker Google Maps, som også samler inn lokasjonsdata, så vi finner køfri vei til hytta.

Hva er viktigst, hytta eller helsen? Kan vi kombinere godt personvern og tillit til myndighetene for å se effekten av og begrense tiltakene mot covid-19? Folkehelseinstituttet og Simula gjorde en fantastisk jobb med Smittestopp. Appen bør utvikles med bedre sikkerhet og anonymisering, men det å ønske Smittestopp død er feil. Å samle inn og dele data for vår felles helse er viktig, i umiddelbare kriser som covid-19 og mot samfunnsutfordringer som kreft.

Smittestopp er død. Lenge leve Smittestopp.


What is more important: your holiday cabin or your health?

Deactivate the app Smittestopp at once – with good conscience, Joacim Lund writes in Aftenposten. This should rather give him a bad conscience.

The app Smittestopp collects people’s movement patterns to track the spread of covid-19. Privacy is important, and that is why we should take it seriously when The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (DPA) protests against the app’s storage and handling of data. Only 11 percent of Norway’s population used the app, when the data collection was stopped. That is far from the necessary 50 percent to get a real overview of the spread of the disease.

This is in contrast to the fact that many of us use Google Maps, which is also collecting location data, so that we can find the quickest way to our holiday cabins.

What is more important, the holiday cabin or our health? Can we combine good privacy and trust in government to see the effect of and limit the measures against covid-19? The Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Simula did a fantastic job with Smittestopp. The app should be developed with better security and anonymization, but to wish Smittestopp dead is wrong. To gather and share data for our common health is important, in immediate crises like covid-19 and against societal challenges like cancer.

Smittestopp is dead. Long live Smittestopp.

Torbjørn Furuseth is the Chief Financial Officer of Targovax, a Norwegian company developing oncolytic viruses against cancer. Photo: Targovax

Targovax releases 12-month clinical data

Our member Targovax has released 12-month data from the company’s clinical study of the oncolytic virus ONCOS-102 in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Targovax is a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster that develops oncolytic viruses to treat solid cancer tumours. The company’s lead product is called ONCOS-102 and has been engineered to selectively infect cancer cells and activate the immune system to fight cancer.

An oncolytic virus is a virus that preferentially infects and kills cancer cells.

The oncolytic virus ONCOS-102 is currently being tested in a phase I/II clinical trial with the aim to establish its safety and efficacy. ONCOS-102 is tested in combination with the standard-of-care chemotherapy on patients with mesothelioma.

The company released 12-month data from the clinical trial this week, which powerfully demonstrate a broad immune activation linked to clinical benefit.

Watch the presentation with Magnus Jäderberg, Chief Medical Officer at Targovax:

What is mesothelioma?

Malignant mesothelioma is a type of cancer that occurs in the thin layer of tissue that covers the majority of your internal organs (mesothelium). Mesothelioma is an aggressive and deadly form of cancer.

Mesothelioma is a difficult cancer disease to diagnose and treat. Only 10% of all patients are eligible for surgery. Many of the remaining patients receive chemotherapy. Radiotherapy may be used in some cases for palliative reasons. There have been no new break-through treatments with any significant impact during the last 15 years.

Immunotherapy has started to make an inroad on the disease. There are a couple of checkpoint inhibitor trials for patients with second-line disease. For patients with first-line disease, there are currently no immunotherapy options.

Checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a form of cancer immunotherapy, a type of therapy that uses substances to stimulate or suppress the immune system to help the body fight cancer.

The 12-month data

Targovax has presented data from the company’s phase I/II trial focusing on safety on combining ONCOS-102 with chemotherapy. They have looked at both first-line and second-line patients being treated with standard-of-care chemotherapy in combination with ONCOS-12.

The study includes a control group of 11 patients who have received chemotherapy only and an experimental group of 14 patients who received the combination of chemotherapy and ONCOS-102.

The 12-month results show that ONCOS-102 drives broad and powerful immune activation across key parameters, including innate immune responses, adaptive immune responses and remodelling of the tumour microenvironment.

The tumor microenvironment has profound impacts on cancer progression and remodelling of the tumour microenvironment has emerged as a strategy to facilitate cancer therapy.

The analysed genes show that there is a clear difference in ONCOS-102-induced immune activation compared to chemotherapy only. The genes also show there is a clear association between the powerful immune activation and improved clinical outcome.

The data shows that ONCOS-102 drives the infiltration of CD8+ T cells into the tumour, which is associated with better outcomes.

Targovax now plans to continue the clinical study for first-line patients. The company sees a strong rationale for combining ONCOS-102 with checkpoint inhibitor and standard-of-care chemotherapy.

On Tuesday, Targovax also revealed they will collaborate with our member pharmaceutical company MSD (known as Merck in the US) to evaluate the immunotherapy drug Keytruda in combination with ONCOS-102.

Find out more …

Researcher Anette Weyergang shows the PCI technology to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Grants awarded for PDT/PCI research

Erna Solberg visits PCI Biotech

Radforsk has granted seven research projects a total amount of MNOK 1,25 to further develop exciting research projects within photodynamic treatment and photochemical internalization.

Radforsk is an evergreen investor focusing on companies that develop cancer treatments.

“Radforsk has ploughed NOK 200 million of its profit back into cancer research at Oslo University Hospital. Of these, NOK 25 million, have gone to research in PDT/PCI. This year we grant seven projects a total of NOK 1,25 million,” says Jónas Einarsson, CEO of Radforsk.

Radforsk had received a total of seven applications by the deadline on 1 March. All projects were allocated funding.

The applications have been assessed by external experts.

The researchers who have received funding for PDT/PCI research in 2020 are:

  • Anette Weyergang is granted NOK 300 000 to the project: “Photochemical Internalization: Development of a novel tumor-specific protein toxin to defeat aggressive and resistant cancers”
  • Beáta Grallert is granted NOK 100 000 for the project: “Cancer-specific bioluminescence-PDT”
  • Judith Jing Wen Wong is granted NOK 100 000 to the project “Light-enhanced targeting of immunosuppressive tumor cells”
  • Kirsten Sandvig and Tore Geir Iversen are granted NOK 200.000 to the project “Drug-loaded Photosensitizer-Chitoscan Nanoparticles for cominatorial Chemo- and Photodynamic cancer therapy”
  • Mouldy Sioud is granted NOK 200.00 to the project “Antibody- and peptide-targeted photodynamic therapy to kill cancer cells”
  • Qian Peng and Henry Hirschberg are granted NOK 50 500 to the project “Improved therapy of brain tumors by PDT induced anti-tumor immune responses”
  • Qian Peng is granted 300 000 to the project “Photopheresis of patients with Crohn’s disease using 5-aminolevulinic acid”

Read about the projects that were funded in 2019 here.

FACTS

PDT/PCI

Cancer research in the field of photodynamic therapy and photochemical internalisation studies the use of light in direct cancer treatment in combination with drugs, or to deliver drugs that can treat cancer to cells or organs.

Radforsk

Since its formation in 1986, Radforsk has generated NOK 600 million in fund assets and channelled NOK 200 million to cancer research, based on a loan of NOK 1 million in equity back in 1986.

During this period, NOK 200 million have found its way back to the researchers whose ideas Radforsk has helped to commercialise.

NOK 25 million have gone to research in photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photochemical internalisation (PCI). In total, NOK 40 million will be awarded to this research.

Parts of the GLIMT team together with Arif and Unge Ferrari at Rikshospitalet. Photo: GLIMT UB

Helping teens in the hospital

GLIMT UB, Arif and Unge Ferrari at Rikshospitalet, Oslo.

This article was originally written in Norwegian and published on our School Collaboration website.

Ullern students helped teenagers in the hospital while learning how to become entrepreneurs.

GLIMT UB, a youth company at Ullern Upper Secondary School, wants to give chronically ill teenagers the activities they need while they are in hospital. The pizza night with the famous Norwegian rappers Arif and Unge Ferrari was a big success, but then the corona pandemic put a temporary stop to the newly started company.

“GLIMT offers teens in hospital different activities, which are planned and carried out by other teens. We offer an arrangement for the hospitals, which is better adapted and more resource-efficient.”

Teenagers who stay in the hospital for long periods of time are often isolated and have few other fulfilling activities in their everyday lives. GLIMT UB decided to do something about this and thought of the idea to arrange pizza nights at the hospital, inviting famous people as guests for the young patients.

The concept was a success and the pizza night with Arif and Unge Ferrari at Rikshospitalet in January 2020 attracted five times as many young patients as other activities. Arif and Unge Ferrari hung out with the teens who are staying in the hospital because of different illnesses. The night was spent eating pizza, playing cards and beading.

“The mother of one of the patients said that we need to come back and arrange this more times. She insisted that this was an important optional activity because it was planned by teens for teens,” said Tyra Kristoffersen.

Tyra has worked in GLIMT UB, together with the other Ullern students Andreas Bjurstrøm, Carl Ruge, Miriam Idsøe and Alexander Floskjer, during the last school year.

Young patients are isolated

“During the age when you have the greatest need to be social and gain new experiences, one group is getting left out of the traditional social framework. Across Norway, there are children and young adults staying in hospitals and, in spite of both internal and external measures, many end up being isolated from the rest of society. The age group 13 to 19 is a very challenging group to reach and they lack adequate activities. To improve the health service in Norway, we need better adapted activities for this age group.”

This quote is from GLIMT UB’s business plan, which awarded the company first place in the category Best Business Plan in the Oslo Championship for Young Entrepreneurs.

The team behind the youth company GLIMT UB gathered at Ullern Upper Secondary School. Photo: GLIMT UB’s Facebook page

The team behind the youth company GLIMT UB gathered at Ullern Upper Secondary School. Photo: GLIMT UB’s Facebook page

The concept of GLIMT is based on young, famous people’s motivation to help young people in a challenging situation, without getting paid for their time.

“If we had paid the celebrities to come, this wouldn’t have worked because the hospitals have such a limited budget. The famous people still benefit from positive mentions in social media and can use the activity to promote themselves if they wish,” Tyra said.

Before the corona pandemic, GLIMT UB had planned several pizza nights at Rikshospitalet, since the first one was such a success.

“We have been in touch with several celebrities, such as Herman Flesvig, Ulrikke Falck and Tix, who were all very positive to participate. Unfortunately, the corona pandemic forced visitation restrictions in place at hospitals in Norway, so we couldn’t arrange more pizza nights than the one with Arif and Unge Ferrari,” Tyra said.

The students behind GLIMT UB still think they have learned a lot.

A valuable mentor

Entrepreneurship is one of many subjects that the students at Ullern Upper Secondary School can choose in their second or third year. The students learn how to start a company and the theory behind what makes some businesses succeed and why other businesses fail.

The students also need to establish and run their own youth company during the course.

The team behind GLIMT UB considered an idea about redesign, but scrapped it when they realised that this was a concept that many youth companies were interested in.

“We started thinking about what is close to our school and of course the hospital is right next door. We discussed with our entrepreneurship teacher Karin if we could think of something in relation to that. We quickly found out that teens in the hospital don’t have many activities. The younger kids get visits from hospital clowns and their own playroom,” Tyra said.

At the Norwegian Radium Hospital, there are however not many young adults admitted. Most teenage patients are at Rikshospitalet and Ullevål.

“Through our mentor Bente, we got in touch with the activity leader for teenagers at Rikshospitalet and Ullevål. He liked our idea a lot, and other people were also positive, so we just had to keep working,” Tyra said.

Mentor Bente Prestegård and the students Andreas Bjurstrøm, Carl Ruge, Tyra Kristoffersen and Miriam Idsøe, standing outside Ullern Upper Secondary School. Alexander Flåskjer is also a part of the GLIMT team, but was unfortunately not present on the day the image was taken. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen

Mentor Bente Prestegård and the students Andreas Bjurstrøm, Carl Ruge, Tyra Kristoffersen and Miriam Idsøe, standing outside Ullern Upper Secondary School. Alexander Flåskjer is also a part of the GLIMT team, but was unfortunately not present on the day the image was taken. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen

Bente, that Tyra mentioned, is Bente Prestegård. She is a project manager in Oslo Cancer Cluster and one of her many projects is the school collaboration between Ullern Upper Secondary School and Oslo Cancer Cluster.

“I have had a few meetings with the students behind GLIMT. I have specially advised them about how to relate to patients and staff in the hospital, and I helped them with pitch training in advance of the Oslo Championship in Young Entrepreneurship,” said Prestegård.

Prestegård thinks that it is a lot of fun to be a mentor for GLIMT and she is impressed about how driven the students have been and how much they have accomplished, even though the corona pandemic but a sudden stop to the company’s activities in March.

The students also learned a lot from Bente’s advice and are grateful for all the coaching they have received while running the company.

“Bente introduced us to several key people at Oslo University Hospital, which was very valuable for us. She is also very knowledgeable about the economy and has given us a lot of good input on that aspect too,” Tyra said.

Learning in practice

It is June now and homeschooling is fortunately over, but there are still strict visitation rules at Norwegian hospitals because of the pandemic. GLIMT UB is dissolved since the school year is over and the students have gained a sense of what it is like to be a founder.

“It has been fun and educational. We would, of course, had wanted to do more for these teens, but hopefully, the hospitals across the country can be inspired by our idea,” said Carl, the company’s interim manager.

One thing that has been challenging for GLIMT is to find a way to make money out of the idea since the hospitals have limited resources.

“We still had NOK 7 000 left in our budget this year, which we have donated to Oslo University Hospital,” said Tyra.

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