Gothenburg ramps up ecosystem for future medicine development
Advanced therapies, ATMPs, are revolutionizing the possibilities for treating and even curing serious illnesses. They are transforming the global pharmaceutical industry. Gothenburg and West Sweden are at the forefront, with industry, academia and healthcare driving progress.
Gothenburg’s universities and the city’s Sahlgrenska University Hospital are helping pave the way, both in terms of research and education. More and more initiatives are happening in the area.
“In western Sweden, we are strongly equipped to work with ATMPs, not least because of the strong collaboration between Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Chalmers University of Technology, the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska Academy. A collaboration that has been strengthened by a declaration of intent to work together on the development of ATMPs,” said Peter Gjertsson, Area Manager at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, to Sahlgenskaliv, the university hospital’s magazine.
A concrete consequence of this declaration of intent will be a joint investment in new advanced-level courses, within for example, bioanalytics, pharmacy and biotechnology programmes.
Sahlgrenska University Hospital is progressive, and has had in place an ATMP centre since 2020. The centre brings together expertise and experience, and supports the university hospital’s activities to make ATMPs available to patients.
“Successful treatments with ATMPs are already being conducted in several areas today. There are a number of examples in paediatrics where we work with both approved recommended drugs and treatments that take place in clinical trials. Other areas that have treatments with ATMPs include hematology, oncology, ophthalmology and dermatology,” said Peter Gjertsson to Sahlgenskaliv.
“It is also a way in for industry that makes healthcare accessible. It makes Sahlgrenska University Hospital interesting for the international pharmaceutical industry,” he added.
Industry sees huge potential
On the industry front many key actors in Sweden’s ATMP ecosystem, including AstraZeneca, Takara Bio Europe, TATAA Biocenter and Verigraft are located in Gothenburg and carry out research and development here. And they are making progress.
Verigraft, a tissue engineering company from Gothenburg, for example, started 2024 by reaching a major regularity safety milestone in its ongoing trial of its main product. The first clinical application is to treat chronic venous insufficiency. Its technology can provide surgeons with fully-biological, personalized tissue grafts for implantation to patients.
Fluicell, another innovative local company developing implantable tissues, recently reported positive results from their initial in-vivo studies for their potential type 1 diabetes treatment.
National cluster will further strengthen the ecosystem
A new national cluster for advanced therapies is also being established in Gothenburg at GoCo Health Innovation City. The focus areas of the private-public initiative will be commercialisation support, process development and production.
It will be led by CCRM Nordic, which is backed by an industrial consortium. It recently moved into offices at GoCo and will also open a smaller, temporary lab there this quarter.
According to its CEO, Fredrik Wessberg, construction of the new 3,000 sqm national centre will start later this month. It aims to be operational during 2026, and have a manufacturing license from the Swedish MPA in the end of 2026. It expects to employ more than 100 people by 2028, with around a dozen already in place.
“Sweden wants to be a leader in ATMPs by 2030. An exciting ecosystem is taking shape and many of the key assets and most innovative companies are in the Gothenburg region. We have a long track record of scientific excellence in this area, with pioneering work in the fields of tissue engineering and transplantation,” says Iris Öhrn, investment advisor for life science at Business Region Göteborg. She was part of the team that helped make CCRM Nordic's investment in Gothenburg possible.
“We have noticed growing interest from international players, which is backed by the decision to host the upcoming ISCT [International society for gene and cell therapy] European congress in our city,” she adds.
Read more