News and Trends 29 Aug 2019 Off-the-Shelf Kidney Cancer Immunotherapy More Than Doubles Recovery in Phase II An off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapy developed by the Swedish biotech Immunicum has eradicated kidney tumors in 11% of treated patients compared with just 4% of patients given standard treatments in a phase II trial. Immunicum is developing a cell immunotherapy to treat metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This advanced form of kidney cancer is particularly hard to […] August 29, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Aug 2019 Swedish Ulcerative Colitis Treatment Makes Phase II Comeback InDex Pharmaceuticals’ ulcerative colitis drug candidate has achieved positive phase IIb results, suggesting work to improve its dosage after a previous phase III failure was successful. The Swedish company tested different doses of the small molecule drug cobitolimod against a placebo in patients with the inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis. The 213 patients in the […] August 27, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 9 Aug 2019 This Biotech Cleans up Drugs from Sewage Using Enzymes We’re visiting Uppsala, Sweden, this week. This city is home to Pharem Biotech, a company developing enzymes to break down drug residues contaminating wastewater. Mission: To remove drug residue from sewage water by developing enzymes that are modified to be 200 times more effective than natural enzymes. This technology could reduce the ecological and health […] August 9, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Jun 2019 Spider Silk Could Improve Organoids for Drug Development The Stockholm-based organoids company BioLamina has teamed up with the recombinant spider silk Stockholm startup Spiber Technologies to develop organoids that are more accurate tissue models than those used currently. Organoids are gaining popularity as a drug testing tool due to their capacity for modeling human tissue in 3D, which is more representative than 2D […] June 20, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 7 Jun 2019 This Biotech Transplants Cells into the Eye to Personalize Diabetes Treatments Up north in Stockholm, the Swedish company Biocrine aims to personalize diabetes treatments by screening drugs in pancreatic cells that have been transplanted into the eye. Mission: To test new drugs for type 1 and type 2 diabetes on pancreatic cells transplanted into the eye, where the cells can thrive and be easily monitored with […] June 7, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 May 2019 Viral Vaccines Could Be Weapons Against Alzheimer’s Disease Scientists in Sweden have found that some viruses can increase the buildup of protein ‘plaques’ linked to Alzheimer’s disease, a discovery that could lead to new vaccines treating the condition. According to Kariem Ezzat, one of the lead researchers based in Stockholm University, the group is looking for industrial collaborators to develop vaccines against viruses […] May 28, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 11 Apr 2019 Scientists Develop Treatment to Combat Antibiotic Resistance in Meningitis Researchers based in Sweden and Denmark are developing a meningitis treatment that could overcome antibiotic resistance by targeting white blood cells called neutrophils. Antibiotic resistance has become a pressing issue, as many easily treatable infections become harder to fight with traditional antibiotics. Bacterial meningitis is particularly concerning, as its already considerable mortality rate of 10-30% […] April 11, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 5 Apr 2019 This Biotech Is Making Tissue Bioprinting Child’s Play 3D printing living tissues is complex and technically tricky. Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Cellink is developing bioprinting technology with a focus on making it easy to use for non-experts. Mission: To make bioprinting technology simpler to use for researchers. This could be used to make cancer disease models for drug testing, and even printing […] April 5, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 25 Mar 2019 Swedish Biotech’s Stock Severely Hit by Failure of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s Drug The failure of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug in a phase III trial last week caused BioArctic’s stock price to plummet by 35% on Nasdaq Stockholm. The Swedish company has just begun a phase III trial of its own Alzheimer’s treatment. Last week, Biogen and its pharma collaborator Eisai discontinued the phase III development of an […] March 25, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Feb 2019 Swedish Biotech Receives EU Grant for High-Accuracy Kidney Cancer Test The Swedish biotech Elypta has received a Horizon 2020 grant of €2.4M to fund a clinical trial of a blood and urine test that provides an accurate diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma. The clinical trial aims to validate Elypta’s technology as a monitoring tool in patients who have been treated for the kidney cancer renal […] February 4, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Dec 2018 Scientists Repurpose Skin Cells to Fight Cancer Researchers have reprogrammed skin cells to make them behave like immune cell sentinels called dendritic cells, which can recruit the immune system to fight tumors. This discovery makes a step toward better cancer immunotherapy. “We are merging two different areas of research,” Carlos-Filipe Pereira, from Lund University, Sweden, said to me. “One of them is […] December 10, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Dec 2018 First-in-Class Cancer Drug Gets €50M Boost The biopharmaceutical company Aprea Therapeutics has raised €50M to fund a Phase III trial of its first-in-class cancer drug candidate, which kills tumor cells by restoring the function of a key anti-cancer protein called p53. Aprea’s planned Phase III trial will test the company’s lead candidate small molecule drug combined with the chemotherapy drug azacitidine. […] December 3, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email