Bjørn Klem new General Manager for Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator

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Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator is delighted to inform that Bjørn Klem has been hired as General Manager. He will start January 1st 2015.

Bjørn Klem is coming from Photocure where he is Project Director. He has been with the company for 17 years. In Photocure, Klem has been in charge of exploratory projects including clinical development of both Metvix® and Hexvix®, Lumacan and Allumera. Both Metvix® and Hexvix® have successfully been introduced to markets world-wide.

At the moment he is in charge of another project, Cevira, for treatment oncogenic HPV infections. This project is about to enter phase III in clinical development. Klem has also been working with market access and out-licensing of Cevira.

An asset for the Incubator
“We are very happy to have Bjørn on board as the first General Manager of the Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator. He is in deed the right man for this job, based on his long experience with taking products all the way to the market. I am certain that the start-ups in the Incubator will get just the coaching and support they need from Bjørn and the team he will set up,” says Ketil Widerberg, General Manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator is currently situated at Lysaker, where the Incubator is sharing office space with the Management Team of Oslo Cancer Cluster, Pharmalink Oncology, Targovax and the Radium Hospital Research Foundation –  plus Nansen Neuroscience Network.

Symbiotic environment
In July 2015 all these actors will move to the brand new Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park at Montebello, right next to the Norwegian Radium Hospital and The Institute of Cancer Research at Oslo University Hospital. The Incubator will provide a symbiotic environment for scientists and biotech companies working in oncology. The aim is to promote development of novel diagnostics and treatments, and make them accessible to patients world wide.

“The Radium Hospital Innovation Campus is designed specifically to facilitate interactions between all players in this field (scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, biotech companies and providers) in the belief that “We are better than I”. We are now signing contracts with institutions and companies that want to be part of this adventure and would like to hear from you too,” says Bjørn Klem.

He will start full time as General Manager for the Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator January 1st 2015. Mr. Klem is currently the Chairman of the Board of Oslo Cancer Cluster and Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, positions he will resign from due to his new obligation.