NEWS. Sciety supports innovative companies in life science and digital health. We help them grow and become successful, so that scientific breakthroughs in medicine and technology can become available to people all over the world. During the fall we continued our journey towards this goal, together with our portfolio companies.
Let’s look back at some highlights from this fall, for Sciety and our portfolio companies!
Sciety’s fall milestones
Sciety is not only a long-term investor in our portfolio companies, we are also a strategic partner to the companies we choose to invest in. In addition to capital, we offer strategic and operational advice and provide contacts to potential customers, partners and employees – all to help our portfolio companies succeed. For instance, during the fall we helped to identify and recruit board members and led dialogues with other venture capital firms that have shown interest in our portfolio companies. More news to come at the beginning of next year.
Investments during the fall
Neogap Therapeutics
Early this fall, the last details were finalised regarding Sciety’s investment in Neogap Therapeutics, a Swedish biotechnology company in clinical phase developing personalised immunotherapy for treating cancer. Sciety and Sciety Venture Partners invested SEK 54 million in Neogap, and the capital will be used to fund the company’s ongoing clinical phase I/IIa study involving patients with colorectal cancer. Since the initial investment from Sciety and Sciety Venture Partners in 2021, Neogap has completed its preclinical development, applied for and received approval for the Phase I/IIa clinical trial involving patients with colorectal cancer, taking the candidate from preclinical to clinical development. The company’s immunotherapy combines cutting-edge research in cancer and immunology with the goal of being able to treat cancer patients who currently have no other treatment options. Read more about Sciety’s investment in Neogap.
PharmNovo
Towards the end of the year, the issue in PharmNovo was completed, and the company received new capital by issuing convertible debentures. In total, convertibles were subscribed for SEK 23.1 million. PharmNovo is a pharmaceutical company in clinical phase developing a unique type of treatment for nerve pain, an area that currently lacks effective and safe treatments. In the absence of treatments for nerve pain, drugs that are intended for other diseases are used, including epilepsy and depression. These treatments do not provide sufficient pain relief and are also often associated with serious side effects. PharmNovo’s drug candidate specifically binds to a receptor that has been shown to play a major role in nerve pain, and is expected to provide both safe and effective relief for patients suffering from nerve pain.
Company event on capital acquisition and investor communication
In September, we kicked off the fall by organising our popular seminar on capital acquisition for researchers or companies in life science and digital health. The event was arranged in collaboration with SwedenBio. During the event, SwedenBio’s CEO Jessica Martinsson shared insights and experiences from her journey as co-founder of Sprint Bioscience. Furthermore, Sciety’s employees Karl-Fredrik Johannesson and Teodora Andonova presented our best tips and practices on how unlisted companies can raise capital at an early stage. Sciety’s corporate communications manager Charlotte Smirnova also shared our expertise on how life science companies can strengthen their brand and communicate effectively with investors. Thank you to all participants, and a special thank you to our co-organisers SwedenBIO for a successful collaboration.
Forward-looking investor event
One evening in November, we welcomed Sciety’s investor network to an exclusive event on the theme of future scenarios and opportunities within life science. Together with prominent researchers, leading investors and industry analysts, we took a deep dive into cutting-edge research and explored the latest trends in life science and digital health from an investor perspective. The evening featured a panel discussion on data-driven precision medicine with Tommi Unkuri, partner and co-founder of Summa Equity; Mattias Häggblom, Sector Head for Healthcare, Equity Research at Handelsbanken; and Mats Nilsson, professor at SciLifeLab and co-founder of several biotech companies such as Olink. Thank you to our speakers and participating investors, we look forward to organising similar events in the future. Read more about the investor event.
Sciety grows – expands corporate communications
Strong investor relations are an important success factor in life science. That is why Sciety offers corporate communications services, where we help our portfolio companies communicate their message clearly and effectively. In response to increasing demand for Sciety’s services in corporate communications, we expanded the team by three communication specialists after the summer. The communications team has a unique mix of experience from life science, finance and investor relations. We currently have clients in several different life science areas, from pharmaceuticals to digital health, and work with both listed and unlisted companies. For example, we help our clients with producing press releases, shareholder updates, web strategy, etc. We also develop overall communication strategies to help our clients reach potential customers and help implement these strategies through effective communication efforts. Read more about Sciety’s corporate communications services.
A selection of our portfolio companies’ milestones
PharmNovo
The pharmaceutical company PharmNovo has made significant progress in the development of treatments for neuropathic pain. In the spring, Jesper Kjerulff was recruited as COO and in the fall, Alexander Dahlquist was recruited as the new CFO. The company reported positive phase I results for drug candidate PN6047. The results of the study show that the candidate is both safe and tolerable at the doses expected to provide relief from nerve pain. The candidate showed no signs of side effects such as respiratory depression, addiction or cardiovascular problems that occur with other treatments prescribed for nerve pain. In preparation for phase II studies in 2024, PharmNovo has started a collaboration with Worldwide Clinical Trials. Furthermore, the American National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has funded PharmNovo’s project that examines the potential of the company’s drug candidate in the treatment of opioid withdrawal.
Neogap Therapeutics
The biotechnology company Neogap Therapeutics, specialising in personalised immunotherapy, has had a successful year with several important milestones. During the fall, Neogap was awarded SEK 29 million from the EU’s EIC Accelerator. The funds will be used for the company’s ongoing phase I/II clinical study on patients with colorectal cancer and for preparations for the next study. Neogap also acquired the company TCER Oncology AB during the fall. The shares were acquired from Rolf Kiessling and Stina Wickström – both prominent researchers in the company’s field – in exchange for shares in Neogap Therapeutics. The acquisition strengthened the company’s patent portfolio and pipeline of potential candidates. In addition, valuable expertise was added to the company through researchers Rolf Kiessling and Stina Wickström and their involvement as shareholders. Neogap was also selected winner of Business Sweden’s Catalyst Program 2023 within Deep Tech, a program that identifies Swedish companies that have the strongest potential to scale up globally.
Capitainer
The medtech company Capitainer develops intelligent solutions for self-sampling of blood. During the fall, the company strengthened its team by recruiting Mathias Karlsson as Chief Medical Officer. The company’s self-sampling products have also played a central role in a comprehensive covid-19 study published in The Lancet, showing that frequent doses of the covid-19 vaccine reduce mortality in nursing home residents. The testing at the nursing homes was carried out by self-sampling and assisted sampling with Capitainer’s patented sampling card. Capitainer is also a key player in a collaborative project around personalised medicine and diagnostics, with SEK 12 million in funding from KK-stiftelsen. Capitainer’s self-sampling products were also featured in Dagens Industri as an important part of future healthcare, especially in large-scale screening to be able to detect diseases early.
Elypta
The diagnostics company Elypta, a pioneer in early cancer diagnostics, has received ISO certification for its quality management system according to the standard ISO 13485:2016 for medical devices. The certification is an important step for the company because it enables potential future clinical use of the tests that the company is developing. Elypta has also been recognised by Ny Teknik as one of Sweden’s top technology startups for the third year, in the so-called 33 list. The list is released every year to highlight the efforts and potential of young, unlisted tech companies that, according to Ny Teknik, are “tomorrow’s technology stars”.
Akiram Therapeutics
Biotechnology company Akiram Therapeutics, specialised in targeted radiation therapy, presented promising preclinical data at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Congress in the fall. The company’s research highlights the potential of their drug candidate for the treatment of several cancers, including thyroid, head, neck and lung cancer, with a phase 1 study planned for 2024. The company’s founder, Professor Marika Nestor and her research team at Uppsala University have also been awarded SEK 6 million from the Erling-Persson Foundation. The funding will contribute to an innovative research project aimed at developing new radiopharmaceuticals for treatments of aggressive cancer and strengthen Akiram’s upcoming phase I study in humans, planned for 2024.
Encare
Healthtech company Encare, which develops SaaS solutions for surgical care, strengthened its team by adding two key roles during the fall. Niklas Wallin has joined as IT manager to drive the company’s product development and geographical expansion. Lotta Sellén assumes the role of sales manager to further develop Encare’s business model and global presence. In addition, Encare has been nominated by Rise Europe as one of Europe’s most promising technology startups, a nice recognition for the company.
Predicare
Predicare, the Nordic market leader in decision support for emergency care assessment, has strengthened its team with two important key competencies. Maria Geimer has joined as Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO). Maria has a background in product development and project management and also has experience in taking digital products to approvals. Pehr Dahlbom assumes the role of Customer Success, RETTS Academy manager, and is thus responsible for the development of the company’s training concept. Pehr has a background in, among other things, emergency psychiatry and emergency medical care. Through these recruitments, two important resources have come into place to implement the company’s strategies for internationalisation and technical development.
We are very proud of the milestones accomplished this fall and celebrate the successes of our portfolio companies during 2023. We look forward to an eventful year in 2024.
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Read Sciety’s spring summary 2023
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