Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI) has won the Regio Stars Västerbotten 2023 award for its ‘Life Science Motorn 2.0’ regional fund project in the category “A region with localized sustainable business development”.
“It feels amazing that our project is being recognized and praised”, says UBI’s outgoing CEO, Jennie Ekbeck, who was the project manager behind the ‘Life Science Motorn 2.0’.
Life science consulting company Orderly People has announced it will base one of its consultants in Umeå after the summer.
“There is a vibrant life science industry in Umeå which we want to be a part of”, says Orderly People’s founder and co-owner, Maria Jansson.
Umeå based HiloProbe AB has entered a partnership with the major international company Biocartis Group NV. This is a strategically important step for HiloProbe in their aim to reach out globally with its colorectal cancer test-product, ColoNode®.
“We are very happy to start a collaboration and a long-term relationship with Biocartis, which strengthens our focus on colorectal cancer thanks to Biocartis’ established sales and distribution network across many countries”, Lina Olsson, CEO of HiloProbe, says.
Umeå-based biopharmaceutical company Omnio AB, which is currently awaiting efficacy data from preclinical wound studies using recombinant plasminogen, has recently appointed an internationally experienced board of directors charged with taking the company forward.
“Our new board’s network and experience will allow us to build strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, accelerate our clinical development program and ultimately bring our wound-healing candidate to market”, says Ulrika Norin, CEO of Omnio.
Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI) is ending its development project program period with the “Life science super week” between May 8th-10th 2023 – an action-packed three-day event filled with seminars, an investment day, a life science pub plus a brand new services business fair.
“Life science in Umeå is buzzing right now, so pulling together several events at the same time gives us great synergistic effects”, says Jennie Ekbeck, UBI’s CEO.
G4 Cancer Cure, a biotech research initiative located in Umeå in northern Sweden, has attracted considerable interest from doctors and the pharmaceutical industry for a new treatment method it is developing for triple-negative breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women around the world, with approximately 15 percent of all cases diagnosed as triple-negative breast cancer. G4 Cancer Cure’s progress towards a treatment method is therefore being followed very closely, according to Project Manager Stefanie Sandberg.
“Our needs analysis shows there is huge interest in a new treatment method from doctors as well as pharmaceutical companies, experts and investors”, she says.
The Board of Directors of Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI) has announced that CEO Jennie Ekbeck is leaving her post after eleven years.
Sjösatt, uppskattad och under ständig utveckling. Kunskapsportalen vässas nu ytterligare med nytt utbildningsmaterial för flera efterfrågade områden.
– Vi ser att det är många olika forskare, entreprenörer och start-up företag som har hittat till plattformen. Vi hoppas att det nya innehållet ökar plattformens attraktionskraft ännu mer, säger Jennie Ekbeck, ordförande för Kunskapsportalens styrgrupp.
Umeå-based pharmaceutical company Vakona has been given a capital injection of just over SEK 14 million from five investors to help it develop a new drug to treat acne.
“This is a significant investment for us, as now we can continue with our product development”, says Gabriella Persson, CEO of Vakona.
During the Covid pandemic, Xerum became nationally known for its self sampling and one of the world’s most sensitive antibody test. Now the Umeå company has been nominated for the prestigious MedTech4Health Innovation Award.
Umeå Biotech Incubator is expanding. Shades of Green and Cropcision are two new cases in the pre-incubator that work with a mix of biotech and architecture and in agtech with the next generation of sustained release systems.
”I applaud UBI to open the doors to entrepreneurs that want to develop ideas within plant biotech, agtech or food tech”, says Daniel Pacurar, who runs the case Shades of Green.
Brian Reznik from Argentina was one of the first participants of a new international incubator course hosted by Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI) that is aimed at helping life science startups.
“We received a lot of help from UBI – among other things in regards to interviews and validation. They really helped us navigate our way through our challenges”, he says.
Life science companies have been awarded several times at the local business gala, Umeågalan. 2023 is no exception. Three life science companies are nominated as finalists in four different prize categories.
In 2019 the research group behind R&D company Neores won both the Athena prize and the Medtech4Health Innovation Award for their rPAP breathing aid designed for babies born too early. Now Neores has announced it is taking the next step in building its business – where one goal is to reach the US market – by joining Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI).
“Neores is an academic spinoff, so our ambition was never to make money or expand. But if we are to reach out more widely with our product we need to become more like a normal company”, says Thomas Drevhammar, CEO of the Östersund-based business.
The life science company InfiCure Bio has started the new year in the best way by signing an agreement with a new client in the US.
“It’s all part of a positive trend that started in the autumn of 2022, and which is getting even stronger now that the US market is recovering after the pandemic. This latest agreement is proof of that”, says InfiCure Bio’s CEO, Sofia Mayans.
Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI) will represent Umeå’s life science industry as part of the annual ‘Västerbotten på Grand Hôtel i Stockholm’ event being held in January.
“We want to contribute to Umeå’s growth as a life science city by connecting the life science industry with local, regional, and national decision-makers”, says UBI’s CEO Jennie Ekbeck.
InnoSer and Inficure Bio are announcing a strategic partnership to offer Inficure Bio’s spontaneous liver inflammation & fibrosis mouse model (NIF mouse) as part of InnoSer’s expanding cardiometabolic services portfolio.
UmanDiagnostics is experiencing growing pains and is expanding its current premises in Umeå.
“We have very efficient premises that we are extremely satisfied with, and this expansion will enable us to increase productivity and deliver more products to the market”, says Niklas Norgren, Vice President and Managing Director at UmanDiagnostics.
The Umeå based life science company InfiCure Bio continues to take large steps in the global market by signing agreements with two major international companies.
“The contracts with our new clients clearly show that pharmaceutical companies continue to invest in the development of new drugs for fibrosis, which is extremely promising for InfiCure Bio”, says InfiCure Bio’s CEO, Sofia Mayans.
