Oslo Cancer Cluster’s highlights 2020

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Networking events, political meetings, ambitious students, funding for SMEs and expansion of the laboratory… Here is a “pick and mix” of our many news from the past year.

Another year has passed and as we look back on a year filled with both challenges and successes, we are inspired with renewed energy to continue our work in 2021. It is never easy to summarise an entire year in only a few paragraphs, but here is an attempt to present a variety of the many positive experiences, fruitful meetings and engaging activities that Oslo Cancer Cluster has enjoyed.

 

Cancer Crosslinks 2020

The speakers, chairpersons, introducers and organizers of Cancer Crosslinks 2020

The speakers, chairpersons, introducers and organizers of Cancer Crosslinks 2020. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

The year began with the 12th Annual Cancer Crosslinks on 16 January. This year’s topic “Progress in Cancer Care – A tsunami of promises or Game Changing Strategies?” included engaging presentations by leading international and Norwegian experts on the latest advances in immune-oncology. These sparked stimulating discussions between colleagues in the networking breaks. Cancer Crosslinks 2020 was one of the few physical meetings this year and gathered more than 350 delegates from all of Norway and abroad at the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park.

Please visit the official Cancer Crosslinks website at https://www.cancercrosslinks.com to register for Cancer Crosslinks 2021, which will be presented digitally on 21 January.

 

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator developed cell therapy lab

Björn Klem and Janne Nestvold celebrate that the Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator has been nominated among Europe's 20 best incubators.

Bjørn Klem, general manager, and Janne Nestvold, laboratory manager, at Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC) Incubator invested in the laboratory’s cell therapy infrastructure, thanks to a grant from the Oslo City’s Regional Innovation Programme. Moreover, Radiumhospitalets Legater have kindly donated a valuable instrument, called a Seahorse, which was set up in the OCC Incubator in November, to boost research into cancer cells further. Cell therapies have the potential to cure cancer and turn it into a chronic disease. More research is however needed to document the full potential of cell therapies and the OCC Incubator is happy to facilitate this.

Please visit Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator’s website to learn more about their facilities and services

 

First-year researchers held poster session

Linnéa M. Skille, May Dagny Kollandsrud Hutchings, Tonje Marie Bjørklund Hopen and Elakhiya Dushyanthan presented their research project at the school's poster session. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersem

Linnéa M. Skille, May Dagny Kollandsrud Hutchings, Tonje Marie Bjørklund Hopen and Elakhiya Dushyanthan presented their research project at the school’s poster session. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersem

Oslo Cancer Cluster has collaborated with Ullern Upper Secondary School for several years to inspire students to pursue careers in science, research and entrepreneurship. In 2019, we launched the research programme in partnership with the school and this year marked the end of its first year. The grand finale was a real poster session, similar to those at large science conferences, where the students presented their research projects to their mentors. We are proud of these talented, ambitious students and delighted to follow their journey onwards.

Please visit our School Collaboration website for more information

 

Oslo Cancer Cluster joined Oslo Science City

Christine Sørbye Wergeland, CEO of Oslo Science City, was delighted to welcome Oslo Cancer Cluster as a new member in June. Photo: Oslo Science City

Christine Sørbye Wergeland, CEO of Oslo Science City, was delighted to welcome Oslo Cancer Cluster as a new member in June. Photo: Oslo Science City

Oslo Cancer Cluster joined Oslo Science City, the first innovation district in Norway, in June 2020. The district already includes more than 30 000 students, 7 500 researchers, the country’s foremost universities, hospitals and world-class research institutions, as well as more than 300 companies. Now, the aim is to become a world leading innovation district that contributes to research excellence, jobs creation, the green shift and sustainable economic development. Oslo Cancer Cluster is eager to contribute to Oslo Science City to solve the hard problems of the future, such as cancer.

Please visit Oslo Science City’s official website to learn more

 

Ministers met at Oslo Cancer Cluster

Danish Foreign Minister meets with Norwegian Trade Minister at Oslo Cancer Cluster

Ministers Jeppe Kofod and Iselin Nybø met at Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park in August 2020. Photo: The Embassy of Denmark in Norway

Oslo Cancer Cluster was honoured by a visit from the Foreign Minister of Denmark Jeppe Kofod and the Minister for Trade, Industry and Fisheries Iselin Nybø in August 2020. The ministers discussed current topics, such as export, international trade and foreign investments. The ministers also listened to presentations from key representatives from the health industry on the potential of Nordic collaboration on life science and cancer. A central issue was how to reduce the development time of cancer treatments from 10 to 5 years, and to make the Nordics a destination for health innovation.

 

Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park 5-Year Milestone

Five years ago, Prime Minister Erna Solberg was welcomed by Jónas Einarsson, founder of Oslo Cancer Cluster, at the opening of the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park. Photo: Gunnar Kopperud

Five years ago, Prime Minister Erna Solberg was welcomed by Jónas Einarsson, founder of Oslo Cancer Cluster, at the opening of the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park. Photo: Gunnar Kopperud

This year marked five years of innovation in Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park. The milestone was commemorated with a virtual event that will be live until 31 December 2020. The virtual event includes greetings from Prime Minister Erna Solberg, perspectives from members of Oslo Cancer Cluster, reflections from stakeholders in the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park and comments from Innovation Norway, SIVA and the Research Council of Norway.

 

Leading the way for precision medicine

Dr. Kjetil Taskén, Dr. Åslaug Helland and Dr. Hege Russnes are part of the enthusiastic team at Oslo University who are behind the national study IMPRESS. Photo: Oslo University Hospital

Dr. Kjetil Taskén, Dr. Åslaug Helland and Dr. Hege Russnes are part of the enthusiastic team at Oslo University behind the national study IMPRESS. Photo: Oslo University Hospital

IMPRESS-Norway, a national clinical study starting in 2021 working towards implementing cancer precision medicine in Norway, was officially announced in October. IMPRESS involves the active support of leading global pharmaceutical companies that will provide the study drugs and contribute with per patient fees. Public funding will help to ensure this innovative study paves the way for more cancer clinical trials in Norway. A new public-private partnership called CONNECT is also being established with Oslo Cancer Cluster as project coordinator. CONNECT will provide an arena for all stakeholders to jointly address key obstacles and to pilot novel solutions to advance the implementation of precision cancer medicine.

 

DIGI-B-CUBE funding for SMEs

DIGI-B-CUBE Open Call Deadline no 1 Results in Numbers

The first round of voucher applications by SMEs in the DIGI-B-CUBE project was a success. On 29 August 2020, the successful applicants were announced, with funding support of more than 1,4 million euros to SMEs for fostering cross-sectoral Innovation. Of the 217 applications, 22 SMEs were granted financial support to implement their customized solution innovation ideas with an overall budget of more than 1 million euros, ranging from topics like a sleep apnea test device, to Covid-19 monitoring, to in-vitro cellular immunoassays. In addition, 21 SMEs with an overall budget of more than 400 000 euros will be financially supported by the DIGI-B-CUBE project to implement their prototypes.

Please visit DIGI-B-CUBEs official website to learn more

 

Oslo Cancer Cluster events went digital

The Organising Partners from Europe and North America opened the first virtual version of the International Cancer Cluster Showcase this year.

The Organising Partners from Europe and North America opened the first virtual version of the International Cancer Cluster Showcase this year.

This year we had to think of new, creative ways to meet and deliver key events in a new format. Here is a selection of this year’s virtual events:

In May, we live-streamed a political meeting on integrating clinical studies in standard patient care in Norway from Oslo, in collaboration with Kreftforeningen, LMI, MSD, AstraZeneca and Janssen.

On 8 June 2020, the 9th International Cancer Cluster Showcase was launched as a virtual event presenting 20 early-stage oncology companies and sparking record-high participation with about 400 registrations.

During Oslo Innovation Week in September 2020, we arranged the virtual event “What does it take to impact innovation?”, with talks from stakeholders who inspire innovation, protect innovation and provide the necessary tools for innovation.

As a long-standing conference supporter of EHiN “E-health in Norway”, we participated in the first-ever fully digital EHiN in several sessions, covering current topics such as gene technology, artificial intelligence and health data.

Please visit the Oslo Cancer Cluster Event Calendar for an overview of all upcoming events.

 

New members announcement

The Oslo Cancer Cluster member wheel gives a glimpse of the membership base, which has grown this year.

The Oslo Cancer Cluster member wheel gives a glimpse of the membership base, which has grown this year.

During 2020, Oslo Cancer Cluster has welcomed several new members to our organization. We are happy to announce that the following companies have joined us and been introduced to the rest of the cluster: Glaxo-Smith Kline, Hubro Therapeutics, Kaiku Health, Ledidi, Hemispherian, PharmaRelations, Vesteraalens, Adjutec Pharma, K og K and Worldwide Clinical Trials.

Please visit the Oslo Cancer Cluster Member Overview to see all our members and to visit their websites.

 

 

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Oslo Cancer Cluster's member wheel provides a glimpse of our organisation's more than 90 members. Click on "Members" in the menu above to access the full overview and our members' websites.

Top news 2020 from Oslo Cancer Cluster’s members

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Despite the challenges with the corona pandemic, several of our members have distinguished themselves with good news and positive updates throughout the year.

The corona pandemic made 2020 a challenging year for many companies, but the health industry showed a remarkable ability to adapt to the new circumstances. For companies running clinical trials, two major challenges have been restricted access to hospitals, which forced a temporary stop to clinical trials in March, and disruptions to the global supply chain.

Healthcare companies have worked tirelessly despite these obstacles. For that reason, we wish to highlight ten of our Norwegian members (in alphabetical order) who caught our attention this year.

Adjutec Pharma

Pål Rongved, Adjutec Pharma.

Pål Rongved, founder of Adjutec Pharma. Photo: UiO/Terje Heiestad

Adjutec Pharma is a Norwegian start-up with a technology called ZinChel against antibiotic multi-resistance, a condition that can become life threatening, especially for cancer patients. This summer, Adjutec Pharma secured exclusive rights to the patents for the ZinChel technology and will raise more money to accelerate development of the drugs in collaboration with researchers at University of Oslo. Adjutec Pharma also received several grants, including NOK 16 million in innovation support from the Norwegian Research Council. The company will now raise 20 million dollars in investments to reach phase II clinical trials, including public and private funding.

BerGenBio

Richard Godfrey, CEO BerGenBio

Richard Godfrey, CEO of BerGenBio. Photo: BerGenBio

The Bergen-based Norwegian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops AXL kinase inhibitors (a form of cancer immunotherapy) has had a remarkable year. In April, the company was selected as the first to be included in the ACCORD trial, which will test the company’s cancer therapy as a treatment for hospitalised Covid-19 patients. In May, the company raised NOK 500 million in an oversubscribed private placement. The company has also consistently reported positive results from the ongoing phase II trial testing a combination treatment of the AXL kinase inhibitor Bencemtinib and immunotherapy Keytruda on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Visit BerGenBio’s official website to learn more

Exact Therapeutics

Rafiq Hasan, CEO, EXACT Therapeutics

Rafiq Hasan, CEO of Exact Therapeutics. Photo: Exact Therapeutics

Exact Therapeutics is a clinical-stage Norwegian biotech company developing a technology platform for more targeted cancer treatments, called Acoustic Cluster Therapy. This year, the company changed its name from Phoenix Solutions to Exact Therapeutics and appointed Rafiq Hasan as new CEO. Shortly after, the company was listed on Merkur Market (Oslo Stock Exchange) and its value skyrocketed to nearly NOK 1 billion during the first day of trading. In September, Exact Therapeutics restarted its phase I ACTIVATE study, enrolling the first patient at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. The study is assessing the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of Acoustic Cluster Therapy in combination with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic colorectal and pancreatic cancer.

Visit Exact Therapeutic’s official website to learn more

Kongsberg Beam Technology

Per Håvard Kleven, founder of Kongsberg Beam Technology

Per Håvard Kleven, founder of Kongsberg Beam Technology. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

Kongsberg Beam Technology has developed a technology that increases the accuracy of proton therapy, a treatment that is more precise than traditional radiotherapy against cancer. This year, the Norwegian Research Council awarded a grant of NOK 23 million in support of the development of this technology. The company has partnered with Semcon to develop the control and monitoring systems, a full-scale prototype for testing, as well as a digital twin of a patient or organ. The experienced CEO Kerstin Jakobsson has also joined Kongsberg Beam Technology during 2020.

Ledidi

Einar Martin Aandahl, founder of Ledidi. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

Einar Martin Aandahl, founder of Ledidi. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

The Norwegian start-up Ledidi offers a cloud-based software solution that makes sharing of health data easier for researchers. This year, the software was approved for all clinical trials on Covid-19 at Oslo University Hospital. This both simplifies the workflow for medical researchers and makes it possible to share data more securely between clinical institutions and countries. It can also perform complicated statistical analyses on large data sets in a short time frame, which makes it ideal for clinical studies on cancer.

Visit Ledidi’s official website to learn more

NEC OncoImmunity

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

Richard Stratford and Trevor Clancy, founders of OncoImmunity. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

The Norwegian bioinformatics company NEC OncoImmunity AS offers innovative software based on machine learning. The artificial intelligence (AI) platform the company has developed can identify neoantigens, which are key to unlocking the immune system and combating cancer. NEC OncoImmunity made headlines this year by adapting the company’s AI platform towards the development of blueprints for a corona vaccine. In October, NEC OncoImmunity also teamed up with Oslo University Hospital to develop a diagnostic tool for Covid-19 using AI.

Visit NEC OncoImmunity’s official website to learn more

OncoInvent

OncoInvent

Photo: OncoInvent

OncoInvent is a Norwegian pharmaceutical company developing new innovative radiopharmaceutical products to treat cancer patients. The company was established ten years ago by serial entrepreneurs Roy Larsen and Øyvind Bruland. This year, OncoInvent initiated its first clinical studies: two phase I trials in May and June on ovarian and colorectal cancer with progression to the abdominal cavity. The studies are performed at Oslo University Hospital, which means that Norwegian cancer patients gain access to new and innovative treatments long before the treatments reach the market.

Visit OncoInvent’s official website to learn more

Photocure

Dan Schneider, CEO of Photocure.

Dan Schneider, CEO of Photocure. Photo: Photocure

Photocure is a bladder cancer company with a unique light technology, which was developed in Norway, to better detect cancer cells. In January, Photocure’s groundbreaking technology was highlighted in the LA Fox 11 news programme. The biggest news of the year was when Photocure regained worldwide rights to the product Hexvix. Photocure also secured a European patent for Cevira, a photodynamic drug device against cervical cancer. Photocure then appointed Susanne Strauss as Vice President and General Manager of Europe. Moreover, a global phase III trial of Cevira was initiated by the company’s partner Asieris.

Visit Photocure’s official website to learn more

Ultimovacs

Carlos de Sousa, CEO of Ultimovacs. Photo: Ultimovacs

Carlos de Sousa, CEO of Ultimovacs. Photo: Ultimovacs

Ultimovacs is a pharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies against cancer. The lead product is a universal vaccine called UV1 that has the potential to be used against most cancer types. This year, Ultimovacs appointed Carlos de Sousa as new CEO of the company. In June, the company recruited the first patients in two new phase II studies called INITIUM and NIPU, which will recruit up to 400 patients with melanoma and mesothelioma respectively. A third phase II clinical trial is in the planning with an unknown large pharmaceutical partner. The purpose of these studies is to confirm the results from the company’s completed phase I trials, which have shown promising survival data for several years now. Last week, Ultimovacs announced five-year survival data for melanoma patients who received UV1 in combination with ipilimumab – 50% of the patients were still alive.

Visit Ultimovacs’ official website to learn more

Vaccibody

Agnete B. Fredriksen, founder of Vaccibody. Photo: Vaccybody

Agnete B. Fredriksen, founder of Vaccibody. Photo: Vaccibody

Vaccibody is a Norwegian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel immunotherapies. When the corona pandemic struck, the company quickly expanded its technology platform to include infectious diseases; both a strategy and preclinical results of a vaccine was released last week. In October, Vaccibody signed the largest biotech agreement ever in Norway with Genentech (Roche). The agreement is worth up to 715 million dollars in near term and milestones, in addition to low double-digit tiered royalties on sales of commercialized products. Vaccibody was shortly after listed on Merkur Market (Oslo Stock Exchange). Last but not least, co-founder and owner Agnete B. Fredriksen received the Research Council of Norway’s prestigious Innovation Award in November.

Visit Vaccibody’s official website to learn more

 

Oslo Cancer Cluster has more than 90 members, including Norwegian and international companies, research and financial institutions, university hospitals and organizations – all working in the cancer field. They represent the entire oncology value chain, doing everything from exploratory research to selling therapeutics and diagnostics to global markets.

Please visit our member overview page and click on the logos to access the website of each member.

 

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Øystein Soug, CEO of Targovax, was pleased to announce the new results from the clinical study during a webcast this week. Photo: Targovax

Positive results from Targovax’s skin cancer study

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Our member Targovax announced an update from the company’s clinical study on melanoma patients this week.

The clinical study offers Targovax’s medicine ONCOS-102 in combination with the checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda to skin cancer patients with serious disease progression. The patients were all at Stage III and Stage IV at the beginning of the trial and had been through the standard of care. They had no other treatment options after failing anti-PD-1 treatment.

What is anti-PD1 treatment?

PD-1 is a protein that is found on T cells (a type of white blood cell that is part of the immune system) that helps keep the body’s immune responses under control. When PD-1 binds to another protein called PD-L1, which can be found on normal cells and in higher amounts on some cancer cells, it keeps the T cells from destroying cells, including cancer. Some anti-cancer drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors are used to block PD-1. This releases the brakes on the immune system and increases the ability of T cells to kill cancer cells.

Checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of cancer in the last ten years, but they do not work on all cancer patients. Some patients do not have the right types of T cells for the treatment to work. The oncolytic virus called ONCOS-102 developed by Targovax is a combination product, which tricks the immune system to produce these T cells that can help destroy cancer cells.

3d illustration of a cancer cell and lymphocytes

Illustration of cancer cells under attack from lymphocytes (white blood cells), part of the immune system.

 

Partial or complete responses

According to the newly released data from Targovax, 7 of the 20 patients in the clinical study had partial or complete responses after receiving the combination treatment of the immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda and the oncolytic virus ONCOS-102. The patients had overall more than a 30 per cent reduction of their tumours. One patient had a complete response, while the overall response rate was 35 per cent.

Systemic effects

Two patients had a response in non-injected lesions. This means that a response was observed in melanoma lesions that had not been injected with the oncolytic virus. This is what is known as a systemic effect and has not been seen with oncolytic viruses before. Two non-injected lesions had completely disappeared on the patients in the study group.

“These impressive efficacy data in anti-PD1 refractory melanoma are the most important clinical results for Targovax to date,” Øystein Soug, Chief Executive Officer of Targovax, commented.

“The data clearly confirm our hypothesis that ONCOS-102 can benefit cancer patients resistant to checkpoint inhibition by triggering local and systemic immune activation,” Soug continued. “They also provide evidence of clinical efficacy and establishes ONCOS-102 as one of the most promising combination partners to checkpoint inhibitors. We will now carefully analyze the immunological data and are planning for a confirmatory melanoma trial for the ONCOS-102 and checkpoint inhibitor combination.”

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The Norwegian clinical stage biopharmaceutical company BerGenBio develops AXL inhibitors against cancer, which are now being tested to treat Covid-19 patients. Photo: Nils Olav Mevatne/BerGenBio

Cancer drugs being tested to treat Covid-19

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Bergenbio image of researchers in the lab

Our member BerGenBio is currently testing the company’s cancer medicine as a potential treatment for Covid-19.

Another one of our members has emerged this year as an active contributor in the fight against the corona pandemic. BerGenBio, a Norwegian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is running a clinical trial to assess the safety of the company’s cancer drug to treat Covid-19 patients.

BerGenBio develops novel selective AXL kinase inhibitors, an advanced type of cancer treatment. In cancer, AXL suppresses the body’s immune response to tumours. In many different cancer indications, AXL can be the reason that treatments fail.

BerGenBio’s primary drug candidate is called Bemcentinib and is currently being investigated in several ongoing cancer clinical trials, against both lung cancer and leukaemia.

This year, BerGenBio announced the company will also test the drug as a treatment for hospitalised Covid-19 patients. The phase II study, which will recruit a total of 120 patients hospitalised with Covid-19 at different sites in India and South Africa, recruited its first patient in India this week.

“We are pleased to expand the BGBC020 study to patients in India, where incidences of COVID-19 remain high, following the commencement of dosing in South Africa in October,” Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, commented. “There are still no approved therapies for patients hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 infection and we are keen to continue exploring the profile of bemcentinib as a potential treatment.”

Promising solutions from health industry

BerGenBio is one of our many members that have joined the effort against corona this year with their science, technology and knowledge.

Another example is the Norwegian biotechnology company Vaccibody, who have used the company’s cancer vaccine technology to expand their activities to do research into infectious diseases.

Similarly, our member NEC OncoImmunity has adapted the company’s artificial technology platform for improving cancer immunotherapies to design vaccine blueprints against the coronavirus.

Moreover, our member the Norwegian start-up company Ledidi has contributed with a data-sharing software that will be used to increase research collaboration in Oslo University Hospital’s clinical trials on Covid-19.

Several of the larger pharmaceutical companies in our membership base are also in the race to deliver effective vaccines against the coronavirus in 2021.

The corona pandemic has left many sectors of society across the world struggling, but the health industry has proved that it holds promising solutions to a global challenge. Medical innovations and the enthusiasm of researchers continue to shine a positive light at the end of this tunnel.

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