Mandag 7. oktober la finansminister Siv Jensen (til høyre) fram nasjonalbudsjettet og et forslag til Stortinget om statsbudsjett for 2020. Foto: Stortinget

Mer til e-helse og sykehus

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Mandag 7. oktober la finansminister Siv Jensen (til venstre) fram nasjonalbudsjettet og et forslag til Stortinget om statsbudsjett for 2020. Foto: Stortinget

I Statsbudsjettet 2020 foreslår regjeringen flere temaer som er relevante for Oslo Cancer Cluster, blant annet å øke investeringer i e-helseløsninger, satse mer på sykehusene og utvide opsjonsskatteordningen for små oppstartsselskap. Men det står lite konkret om kreft.

– Helse og omsorg har stor plass i budsjettet også til neste år, sa finansminister Siv Jensen i finanstalen hun leverte fra Stortingets talerstol 7. oktober 2019.

Jensen ramset deretter opp satsingsområdene som regjeringen har på helse i Statsbudsjettet 2020:

  • mer moderne sykehus med ny teknologi og nye behandlingsformer, flere fastleger og legespesialister
  • oppfylle opptrappingsplanen for rusfeltet 
  • kortere ventetid for pasienter ved sykehusene
  • bedre omsorgstjenester

Du kan lese hele finanstalen på regjeringens nettside.

Lite konkret om kreft

Statsbudsjettet 2020 nevner lite konkret om kreft, faktisk bare to punkter.

  1. Regjeringen foreslår å øke bevilgningene til nasjonalt screeningprogram for tarmkreft med 24,7 millioner kroner i 2020. Det blir en samlet bevilgning på om lag 97 millioner kroner.
  2. Radiumhospitalet skal videreutvikles som et spesialisert kreftsykehus. Dette nevnes i omtalen av den planlagte sykehusomleggingen i Oslo.

Kliniske studier nevnes ikke spesifikt i Statsbudsjettet 2020.

100 millioner til Gaustad og Aker

Regjeringen foreslår at 100 millioner kroner går til nye sykehus på Aker og Gaustad i Oslo. Samtidig foreslås en låneramme på 29,1 milliarder kroner til prosjektet. Det skal legge til rette for at Helse Sør-Øst og Oslo universitetssykehus kan gå i gang med prosjektering og bygging av et nytt, stort akuttsykehus på Aker og et samlet og komplett regionsykehus inkludert lokalsykehusfunksjoner på Gaustad.

I tillegg foreslås en lånebevilgning til universitetsarealer ved det nye sykehuset i Stavanger.

Satsing på e-helse

Regjeringen foreslår et løft for den nasjonale e-helseutviklingen, med 373 millioner kroner. Dette skal få opp tempoet på digitaliseringen i helsetjenesten og legge til rette for å utnytte norske helsedata bedre.

– Norge har omfattende og verdifulle helsedata som er bygget opp over lang tid. Regjeringen ønsker å gjøre disse lettere tilgjengelig for forskere og andre som har behov for å analysere helsedata. Helseanalyseplattformen vil kutte ned på unødvendig byråkrati og tidstyver. Regjeringen foreslår å øke bevilgningen med 131 millioner kroner, sier helseminister Bent Høie i en pressemelding om temaet.

Regjeringen vil også etablere et «standardisert språk», et kodeverk og terminologi i helse- og omsorgssektoren, for å bedre pasientsikkerhet og skape mer samhandling.

Til sist vil regjeringen øke bevilgningene til modernisering av Folkeregisteret i helse- og omsorgssektoren og til forvaltning og drift av de nasjonale e-helseløsningene kjernejournal, e-resept, helsenorge.no, grunndata og helseID.

Pressemeldingen om satsingen på e-helse kan du lese på regjeringens nettside.

Les mer om prioriteringer i budsjettforslaget for Helse og omsorgsdepartemente på side 25 i Statsbudsjettet 2020. 

Dobbelt opsjonsfordel for start-ups

Regjeringen vil utvide ordningen for gunstig skattemessig behandling av opsjoner i små oppstartsselskaper. Maksimal opsjonsfordel per ansatt dobles fra 500 000 kroner til en million kroner. Regjeringen foreslår også å utvide ordningen til å omfatte flere selskap.

I tillegg til at opsjonsfordelen dobles, økes maksimalt antall ansatte i selskap som kan være i ordningen fra 10 til 12. Det gjør at flere små selskap kan benytte ordningen.

Opsjonsskatteordningen for små oppstartsselskap ble innført fra 2018. Under denne ordningen kan ansatte få opsjoner som gir rett til å kjøpe aksjer i selskapet til en fastsatt pris. Ordningen innebærer blant annet at skatteplikten på opsjonene utsettes salg av aksjene kjøpt ved hjelp av opsjonene. Denne skatteutsettelsen er begrenset til en maksimal opsjonsfordel, som nå foreslås doblet.

Utvidelsene må godkjennes av ESA før de kan tre i kraft. Regjeringen opplyser at den jobber for at endringene vil bli godkjent før nyttår, slik at de kan gjelde fra 1. januar 2020.

Flere relevante temaer i Statsbudsjettet

  • Skattefunn: Regjeringen foreslår endringer i Skattefunn-ordningen som skal stimulere næringslivet til å investere enda mer i forskning og utvikling (FoU). Forslagene øker den årlige Skattefunn-støtten med 150 millioner kroner fra 2020. Samtidig foreslår regjeringen flere tiltak som gir bedre kontroll med ordningen. Les mer om skattefunnforslaget på regjeringens nettside.  
  • Protonsenter: 26 millioner foreslås til protonsenter i 2020.
  • Fastlegene: Regjeringen foreslår å bruke om lag 350 millioner kroner til å styrke og videreutvikle fastlegeordningen. De varsler flere tiltak for å styrke ordningen i en handlingsplan som skal komme våren 2020.
  • Legespesialisering: Regjeringen foreslår 10 millioner kroner til allmennleger i spesialisering (ALIS)-kontor i Bodø, Trondheim, Bergen, Kristiansand og Hamar. Tilskuddet gis for å bistå kommuner i regionen til å planlegge, etablere, inngå og følge opp ALIS-avtaler.
  • Statsbudsjettet 2020 er på 1 414,6 milliarder kroner. Staten forventer å tjene 245 milliarder kroner på olje– og gassvirksomheten til neste år.
  • Du kan fordype deg i Statsbudsjettet 2020 på regjeringens temaside.

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Sune Justesen and Stephan Thorgrimsen from Immunitrack are pleased to receive the Eurostars funding to continue to develop the company's prediction tools. Photo: Immunitrack

New tool to improve cancer vaccines receives funding

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Sune Justesen and Stephan Thorgrimsen from Immunitrack

Oslo Cancer Cluster member Immunitrack has been awarded a grant from Eurostars to develop their prediction tool for cancer vaccines.

Immunitrack is a biotech company that develops software, which predicts immune responses and assesses new cancer vaccines.

Developing a new vaccine can be a lengthy and expensive process, with a high risk of failure. One key to success is being able to predict how the patient’s immune system will react, so drug developers can bring forth therapies that mobilize the immune system to fight the disease. Immunitrack’s tools can help developers predict the impact of a new drug on the patient’s immune system, before entering clinical trials.

Eurostars supports international innovative projects and is co-funded by Eureka member countries and the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme. The funding will be used by Immunitrack over a 24-month period for the ImmuScreen Project, to develop a new prediction tool. It will both improve how cancer vaccines work and how to track patients’ immune responses.

“This Eurostar project will give additional momentum to the ongoing development of a best in class neo-epitope prediction tool, PrDx TM, by Immunitrack,” says Sune Justesen, CSO at Immunitrack.

Immunitrack will receive a total of approximately €750 000 from Eurostars, together with the Centre for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT), based in Herley, Denmark. CCIT aims to bridge the gap between research discovery and clinical implementation of treatments in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

“The collaboration with the Danish Cancer Center for Immune Therapy, is certainly an important step in validating and implementing PrDx, in the immune therapy treatment of cancer patients,” says Sune Justesen, CSO at Immunitrack.

Immunitrack will handle the software development, while CCIT performs the in vitro validation. The clinical validation will be carried out in melanoma patients. The results will help to characterize immune responses and help to understand why some tumours are immune to novel cancer vaccines.

 

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Dr. Richard Stratford and Dr. Trevor Clancy, founders of OncoImmunity are happy to combine forces with NEC Corporation to strengthen their machine learning software in the fight against cancer.

Norwegian AI-based cancer research gets a boost

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Dr. Richard Stratford and Dr. Trevor Clancy, founders of OncoImmunity

The Japanese tech giant NEC Corporation has acquired OncoImmunity AS, a Norwegian bioinformatics company that develops machine learning software to fight cancer.

This week, Oslo Cancer Cluster member OncoImmunity AS was bought by the Japanese IT and network company NEC Corporation. The company is now a subsidiary of NEC and operates under the name of NEC OncoImmunity AS. NEC has recently launched an artificial intelligence driven drug discovery business and stated in a press release that NEC OncoImmunity AS will be integral in developing NEC’s immunotherapy pipeline.

 

AI meets precision medicine

One of the great challenges when treating cancer today is to identify the right treatment for the right patient. Each cancer tumour is unique, and every patient has their own biological markers. So, how can doctors predict which therapy will work on which patient?

NEC OncoImmunity AS develops software to identify neoantigen targets for truly personalized cancer vaccines, cell therapies and optimal patient selection for cancer immunotherapy clinical trials. Neoantigen targets are parts of a protein that are unique to a patient’s specific tumor, and can be presented by the tumor to trigger the patient’s immune system to attack and potentially eradicate the tumor.

“The exciting field of personalized medicine is moving fast and becoming increasingly competitive. The synergy with NEC Corporation will allow us to make our technology even more accurate and competitive, as we can leverage NEC’s expertise in AI and software development and enable OI to deploy our technology on scale in the clinic due to their expertise in networks and cyber security,” said Dr. Trevor Clancy, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder.

“This acquisition gives us the opportunity to be a world leading player in this field and serve our Norwegian and international clients with improved and secure prediction technology in the medium to long term,” said Dr. Richard Stratford, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder.

 

The rise to success

OncoImmunity was founded in 2014 and has been a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster since the early days of the start up. The co-founders Dr. Trevor Clancy and Dr. Richard Stratford said the cluster has been instrumental to their success and thanks the team for their advice and support from the very beginning of their journey:

“It is crucial with a technology like ours that we interact with commercial companies active in drug development, research, clinical projects, investors and other partners. Oslo Cancer Cluster is the perfect ecosystem in that regard as it provides the company with the networking and partnering opportunities that in effect support our science, technological and commercial developments.”

Mr. Anders Tuv, Investment Director of Radforsk, has been responsible for managing the sales process in relation to the Japanese group NEC Corporation on behalf of the shareholders. The shareholders are happy with the transaction and the value creation that was realised through it. Mr. Tuv commented:

“It is a huge recognition that such a global player as NEC sees the value of the product and expertise that have been developed in OncoImmunity AS and buys the company to strengthen their own investments in and development of AI-driven cancer treatment. It is also a recognition of what Norway is achieving in the field of cancer research, and it shows that Radforsk has what it takes to develop early-phase companies into significant global positions within the digital/AI-driven part of the industry. We believe that NEC will be a good owner going forward, and we wish the enterprise the very best in its future development.”

 

Medicine is becoming digital

NEC OncoImmunity AS is now positioned to become a front runner in the design of personalized immunotherapy driven by artificial intelligence. Dr. Trevor Clancy said that NEC and OncoImmunity share the common vision that medicine is becoming increasingly digital and that AI will play a key role in shaping future drug development:

“Both organizations believe strongly that personalized cancer immunotherapy will bring curative power to cancer patients, and this commitment from NEC is highlighted by the recent launch of their drug discovery business. The acquisition now means that both companies can execute on their vision and be a powerful force internationally to deliver true personalized medicine driven by AI.”

 

For more information, please visit the official websites of NEC Corporations and NEC OncoImmunity AS 

 

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The High Throughput Screening Lab at SINTEF. Photo: Thor Nielsen / SINTEF

SINTEF to develop methods in immuno-oncology

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The Cell Lab at SINTEF. Photo: Thor Nielsen / SINTEF

SINTEF and Catapult Life Science are looking for new partners to develop methodology for cancer immunotherapy.

“We want to develop methods within immunotherapy, because this is currently the most successful strategy for improving cancer treatments and one of the main directions in modern medicine,” says Einar Sulheim, Research Scientist at SINTEF.

The Norwegian research organization SINTEF is an Oslo Cancer Cluster member with extensive knowledge in characterisation, analysis, drug discovery and development of conventional drugs.

The new project on methodology for cancer immunotherapy recently started in April 2019 and is a collaboration with Catapult Life Science, a new Oslo Cancer Cluster member. The aim is to help academic groups and companies develop their immunotherapy drug candidates and ideas.

Help cancer patients

Ultimately, the main aim is of course that the project will benefit cancer patients. Immunotherapy has shown to both increase life expectancy and create long term survivors in patient groups with very poor prognosis.

“We hope that this project can help streamline the development and production of immunotherapeutic drugs and help cancer patients by helping drug candidates through the stages before clinical trials.” Einar Sulheim, Research Scientist at SINTEF

 

Develop methodology

The project is a SINTEF initiative spending NOK 12,5 million from 2019 to 2023. SINTEF wants to develop methodology and adapt technology in high throughput screening to help develop products for cancer immunotherapy. This will include in vitro high throughput screening of drug effect in both primary cells and cell lines, animal models, pathology, and production of therapeutic cells and antibodies.

 

High throughput screening is the use of robotic liquid handling systems (automatic pipettes) to perform experiments. This makes it possible not only to handle small volumes and sample sizes with precision, but also to run wide screens with thousands of wells where drug combinations and concentrations can be tested in a variety of cells.

 

The Cell Lab at SINTEF. Photo: Thor Nielsen / SINTEF

The Cell Lab at SINTEF. Photo: Thor Nielsen / SINTEF

 

Bridging the gap

Catapult Life Science is a centre established to bridge the gap between the lab and the industry by providing infrastructure, equipment and expertise for product development and industrialisation in Norway. Their aim is to stimulate growth in the Norwegian economy by enabling a profitable health industry.

“In this project, our role will be to assess the industrial relevance of the new technologies developed, for instance by evaluating analytical methods used for various phases of drug development.” Astrid Hilde Myrset, CEO Catapult Life Science

A new product could for example be produced for testing in clinical studies according to regulatory requirements at Catapult, once the centre achieves its manufacturing license next year.

“If a new method is intended for use in quality control of a new regulatory drug, Catapult’s role can be to validate the method according to the regulatory requirements” Myrset adds. 

SINTEF and Catapult Life Science are now looking for partners.

Looking for new partners

Einar Sulheim sums up the ideal partners for this project:

“We are interested in partners developing cancer immunotherapies that see challenges in their experimental setups in terms of magnitude, standardization or facilities. Through this project, SINTEF can contribute with internal funding to develop methods that suit their purpose.”

 

Interested in this project?