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Please scroll down for a version of this article in English.
Dette er endringene i eierstrukturen for Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC) Innovasjonspark og OCCI Holding AS i begynnelsen av 2020.
OCC Innovasjonspark har siden starten vært eid av Utstillingsplassen Eiendom AS (UPL), Industrifinans OCCI AS, Siva Eiendom, Oslo Cancer Cluster, Radiumhospitalets Legat for Kreftforskning og OBOS Eiendom.
OBOS solgte sin eierandel til øvrige eiere tidligere i 2019. I en ny transaksjon 13. januar 2020 solgte UPL og Industrifinans OCCI AS sine aksjer til en ny eier, OCCI Invest AS. I samme transaksjon har Oslo Cancer Cluster solgt en mindre prosentandel.
OCC Innovasjonspark ligger på Montebello i Oslo ved siden av Oslo Universitetssykehus Radiumhospitalet og Institutt for kreftforskning. Parken åpnet offisielt i august 2015.
Innovasjonsparken huser mange bedrifter som utvikler kreftbehandlinger og diagnostikk, deler av Oslo Universitetssykehus, Kreftregisteret, Radforsk, Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, Oslo Cancer Cluster og Ullern videregående skole.
UPL og Industrifinans OCCI AS har sammen med de øvrige eierne, gjennom sitt eierskap i OCCI Holding AS, vært med på å utvikle OCC Innovasjonspark til et kraftsenter innen kreft. UPL har også hatt prosjektansvar og ansvar for å forvalte eiendommen.
– Vi er svært takknemlig for de investorene som investerte i et risikoprosjekt, som var nytt og banebrytende før det åpnet, sier Jónas Einarsson, styremedlem i OCC Innovasjonspark og Oslo Cancer Cluster.
Innovasjonsparken er i dag utleid til viktige samfunnsfunksjoner, og har blitt en naturlig del av et viktig økosystem for kreftforskning i Norge.
Som en del av sin strategi, gir tidligere eiere nå stafettpinnen videre til nye og langsiktige eiere i OCCI Invest AS. Selskapet er eid av solide eiere, og det er etablert og forvaltet av Pareto Securities AS.
– Konseptet til innovasjonsparken utvikler vi videre – med nye langsiktige investorer. De kan vente seg mye av framtidig utvikling her, og jeg ser fram til å utvikle prosjektet videre med nye og gamle eiere, sier Einarsson.
Tron Sanderud, administrerende direktør i UPL, er også stolt av prosjektet. UPL vil fortsette som forvalter av eiendommen inntil videre.
Innovasjonsparken består i dag av ca. 36 000 kvm kontorer, laboratorier, møterom, auditorier, undersøkelsesrom og videregående skole for over 900 elever.
– Vi har planlagt å bygge nye 7 000-8 000 kvm i andre byggetrinn. Dette bygget vil bli utviklet med nye og spennende prosjekter i samarbeid mellom akademiske institusjoner og industrien. Vi planlegger å starte prosjekteringen av det nye bygget i løpet av 2020, forteller Einarsson.
OCCI Invest AS: 53.7 %
SIVA Eiendom Holding AS: 40,7 %
Radiumhospitalets legat for kreftforskning: 4.6 %
Oslo Cancer Cluster: 1,0 %
The following changes are being made to the ownership of Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC) Innovation Park and OCCI Holding AS as of the beginning of 2020.
OCC Innovation Park has since its opening been owned by Utstillingsplassen Eiendom AS (UPL), Industrifinans OCCI AS, Siva Eiendom, Oslo Cancer Cluster, Radiumhospitalets Legat for Kreftforskning and OBOS Eiendom.
OBOS sold their shares to the other owners earlier in 2019. In another transaction on 13 January 2020, UPL and Industrifinans OCCI AS sold their shares to a new owner, OCCI Invest AS. In the same transaction, Oslo Cancer Cluster has sold a smaller percentage of their shares.
OCC Innovationpark is located in the Montebello area of Oslo, next to the Oslo University Hospital (Radiumhospitalet) and the Institute for Cancer Research. The park was officially opened in August 2015.
The Innovation Park houses many companies that develop cancer treatments and diagnostics, parts of Oslo University Hospital, the Cancer Registry of Norway, Radforsk, Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, Oslo Cancer Cluster and Ullern Upper Secondary School.
UPL and Industrifinans OCCI AS have together with the other owners, through their ownership in OCCI Holding AS, developed OCC Innovation Park to a power centre in cancer. UPL have also been responsible for projects and for managing the property.
“We are very thankful to the investors that invested in this risk project, which was new and ground-breaking before it opened,” said Jónas Einarsson, board member in OCC Innovation Park and Oslo Cancer Cluster.
The Innovation Park is today leased for important services to society and has become a natural part of an important ecosystem for cancer research in Norway.
As a part of their strategy, the former owners are now passing on the baton to new and long-term owners in OCCI Invest AS. The company is owned by solid owners and is established and managed by Pareto Securities.
“We are continuing to develop the concept of the Innovation Park – with new, long-term investors. They can expect a lot of future developments here and I look forward to develop this project further with new and current owners,” Einarsson said.
Tron Sanderud, CEO of UPL, is also proud of the project. UPL will continue as manager of the property.
The Innovation Park today consists of approximately 36 000 square meters of offices, laboratories, meeting rooms, auditoriums, patient screening rooms and an upper secondary school with over 900 students.
“We have planned to build 7 000-8 000 square metres as part of the second construction phase. This new building will be developed with new and exciting projects in collaboration with academic institutions and the industry. We are planning to start the scheme for the new building during the course of 2020,” said Einarsson.
OCCI Invest AS: 53.7 %
SIVA Eiendom Holding AS: 40,7 %
Radiumhospitalets legat for kreftforskning: 4.6 %
Oslo Cancer Cluster: 1,0 %
A few lucky Ullern students got to learn about cancer research from the PhD student Simone Mester at Oslo University Hospital.
The science and research programme at Ullern Upper Secondary School is completely new and the 32 students in the first class have received four mentors who will share their knowledge and experience with them. Early in December, the students were divided among the four mentors and got to visit them at their workplaces to hear more about what they do.
Simone Mester is a former student of Ullern Upper Secondary School and is today a cancer researcher at Rikshospitalet (Oslo University Hospital). Along with the three other mentors from the Oslo Cancer Cluster ecosystem, she has agreed to be a mentor for the students of the science and research programme at Ullern. Earlier in December, eight students visited her at her job.
“This is where I work,” Simone said as we arrived at the Institute for Immunology, which is located right next to Rikshospitalet.
Simone began the visit by telling the students about her background and the road that led her to where she is today.
Simone Mester (above to the left) tell the Ullern students that she is part of the SPARK programme at the University of Oslo. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen
“I graduated from Ullern in 2012. That is when I got to do two work placements at the Radium Hospital – in Clinical Radiation Biology and Tumour Biology. That was the first time I got an impression of what everyday life for a researcher can be like and it was exciting!” said Simone.
She says that she combined the subjects mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology so that she would be able to study medicine. But as the application date drew closer, she became more and more unsure.
“I talked with Ragni, who is your teacher too, and she recommended that I study molecular biology at the University of Oslo. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what I was getting myself into and especially why I had to study all that physics,” said Simone.
During the course of her bachelor degree, Simone was still unsure and spent a lot of time with advisers at the Institute of Biology to get guidance on the best way forward. She decided to study a master degree and was included in a research group led by professors Inger Sandlie and Jan Terje Andersen, where she remains today as she is completing her PhD.
“During my master degree, I wrote about how to tailor the duration of the effect of medicines and pharmaceuticals, and that is what I am still researching in my PhD. A lot of my time here is in the laboratory, where I am planning and conducting experiments on cells and mice, to see if I can achieve what I want,” Simone said.
“Now, I will show you what I spend most of my time on. It is about making proteins, so now I will show you the principal, and afterwards you can try to do the same in the lab. Moreover, you will meet a master student, Anette Kolderup, who will tell you about CRISPR,” said Simone.
Quickly and pedagogical she shows the students the principals for modifying proteins through DNA modification, growing, amplifying and splitting cells.
“Now we will go to the lab, so you can try this yourselves,” said Simone.
We go one floor up, where there are offices and laboratories. The four girls go to Anette, who will show them what CRISPR is and how she uses the method in her master thesis, while the boys will start in the cell lab to make the same experiment that Simone just showed them.
Aleksander tries to handle the pipette when he is working in the lab together with Simone. It is important to have a steady hand. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen
“Inside this hood, the work environment is completely sterile, so you need to wear lab coats and sanitize all the equipment and keep it inside the hood while we are working,” Simone explained.
Aleksander is the first to try and Simone shows him step by step how he can retrieve the proteins from a bottle she has prepared. Everyone soon understands that lab work is a craft that requires skillful hands. It is important to stay focused and remember which solutions that should be added and how, and when the pipettes should go on or off. Aleksander laughs when he has to change an unused pipette that he has touched, even with gloves on it is not allowed.
Then the students switch places and everyone gets to try their hands at everything. Two hours pass by quickly and a very happy group of students with their teacher Ragni leave to go home again.
Are you wondering what we have been up to during the last year?
2019 has been an eventful year for our organisation and our members. We want to put a spotlight on some of the main developments, including successful events that were held, ongoing and new projects, our political initiatives and a section on biotech news from our members. Scroll down to learn more about what we have done. Click the images or titles to access full articles.
17 January 2019
We kicked off the year with our annual conference for the Norwegian oncology community, namely Cancer Crosslinks. We offered a full-day educational programme featuring distinguished international and national experts. They presented recent advances in precision oncology and cancer immunotherapy. More than 300 participants joined Cancer Crosslinks on 17 January 2019 and enjoyed excellent talks and discussions presented by leading international oncologists and researchers and their Norwegian colleagues.
1 March 2019
The year continued with more growth in the organisation. The Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator expanded its laboratories to meet increasing demand from members. The startups have been successful and were in need of more space to perform their research. After moving around some office spaces, and a lot of groundwork to get the infrastructure in place, the two new labs were opened in March. Later in the year, our Incubator was also named one of the Top 20 Best Incubators in Europe, by Labiotech.eu.
5 april 2019
This year a white paper on the health industry in Norway came out for the first time ever. This was an important event because the document underlined some of our key issues, such as attracting more clinical trials to Norway, making better use of Norwegian health data and opening up for more public – privat collaboration. It was first released in April and a committee hearing was held in June, whereupon the document was approved by parliament in October.
1 May 2019
In May, we launched a new Horizon 2020 project called DIGI-B-CUBE. DIGI-B-CUBE will foster the development of customized solutions and prototypes by providing innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU and Associated Countries with access to vouchers of up to € 60,000. The voucher scheme will be launched in April 2020. Throughout the year, SMEs could engage in the project’s activities by participating in sectoral and cross-sectoral workshops as well as matchmaking sessions.
20 May 2019
This was also the first year that we celebrated International Clinical Trials Day on the 20 May 2019, because clinical trials are an important way for patients to gain access to new treatments. We wanted to put a spotlight on the lack of clinical trials in Norway and present some concrete suggestions on how this can be improved. So we asked for help from some of the brightest minds in the world! MBA students from Cambridge University agreed to write a report on patient recruitment to clinical trials in Norway, including incentives for how it can be improved.
16 August 2019
During Arendalsuka 2019, we arranged a breakfast meeting on the development of cancer treatments of the future, together with LMI and Kreftforeningen. Arendalsuka has become an important arena for those who want to improve aspects of Norwegian society. We were there this year to meet key players to accelerate the development of cancer treatments. We wanted to highlight the cancer treatments of the future and whether Norway is equipped to keep up with the rapid developments in precision medicine.
17 August 2019
When the school year began, we were proud to announce the opening of a completely new science and research programme at Ullern Upper Secondary School. The programme is a collaboration between Oslo Cancer Cluster and Ullern Upper Secondary School. It is for students who wish to learn how researchers work. It will qualify students for university studies and specialise them in biomedical research, technology and innovation. Oslo Cancer Cluster will provide access to mentors, work placements and lectures.
12 September 2019
We were also present at the NLS Days in Malmö this year. We promoted the Norwegian life science industry and Nordic collaboration by standing together with other key players in one stand. This stand was visited by the Minister at the Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm. We also hosted the session on oncology titled “Cancer precision medicine: State-of-the-art and future directions”. The session covered recent advances in cancer immunotherapy and cell- and gene therapies.
23 February 2019
Our member Vaccibody has had an exciting year. From announcing that they have raised NOK 230 million in private placements, to showing proof-of-concept for their immunotherapy platform, called VB.10. Early in the year, they entered a clinical collaboration with pharma company Roche to test their treatment on patients with cervical cancer. During the summer, Vaccibody publicized that they had seen strong neo-antigen specific T cell responses in the patients of their clinical trials.
3 April 2019
Our member BerGenBio has also had a successful year. Their immunotherapy drug bemcentinib has shown encouraging results in several clinical trials and they have received FDA Fast Track Approval. A Phase 2 combination trial for elderly patients with AML (acute myeloid leukemia) showed the treatment is well tolerated and has a promising efficacy. BerGenBio are also currently testing bemcentinib in combination with other immunotherapy drugs for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and melanoma (skin cancer).
3 June 2019
Our member Ultimovacs, a Norwegian cancer vaccine company, raised NOK 370 million and entered the Oslo Stock Exchange. The funds will go to financing the development of their universal cancer vaccine, UV1. A large clinical study will document the effect of the vaccine. First for patients with malignant melanoma (a type of skin cancer) at around 30 hospitals in Norway, Europe, USA and Australia. Ultimovacs also announced a large randomised study for 118 patients with mesothelioma, which will be placed at six hospitals in the Nordics.
14 June 2019
In June, our member Lytix Biopharma announced that the Nobel Laureate Dr James Allison and his wife oncologist Dr Padmanee Sharma will become strategic advisors for the company. Dr James Allison was, together with Dr Tasuku Honjo, awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine last December. The renowned cancer researchers received the award for their ground-breaking work in immunology. It has become the basis for different immunotherapies, an area within cancer therapy that aims to activate the patient’s immune system to fight cancer.
2 August 2019
In the end of summer, the Japanese tech giant NEC Corporation acquired our member OncoImmunity AS, a Norwegian bioinformatics company that develops machine learning software to fight cancer. 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.
From all of us, to all of you …
A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
