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Winners of pitching contest

This year, six start-ups and innovation projects participated in the pitching contest taking place at the Norway Life Science Conference.

Picture of winners and the panel on the stage after the contest.

The winners of the pitching contest together with the panel. From left: Hilde Medb?e (Novartis), Carl Henrik G?rbitz  (UiO:Life Science),  Adam Robertson (Hemispherian), Bj?rn Klem (Adjutec Pharma), Francis Combes (RNA-DEGRA), Terje Ahlquist (AstraZeneca), Morten Egeberg (SPARK Norway/UiO:Life Science) og Kirsti Nyhus (AbbVie).

The participants had five minutes each to pitch their business idea. Afterwards a jury, which consisted of Terje Ahlquist, Nordic Medical Director at AstraZeneca, Hilde Medb?e, Healthcare Solutions Manager at Novartis and Kirsti Nyhus, Country Manager at AbbVie asked them questions.

There was strong competition among the participants, presenter Morten Egeberg, leader of UiO:Life Sciences' innovation programme SPARK Norway, said that he was impressed by the level among the participants. The one who received the most votes and was considered the most innovative by the jury was Francis Combes with the innovation project "RNA-DEGRA". In second place came the start-up company Adjutec Pharma and CEO Bj?rn Klem. Third place went to Hemispherian, represented by Chief Scientific Officer Adam Robertson.

The prizes were mentoring sessions from the sponsors AbbVie, Novartis and AstraZeneca, of which the winner Francis Combes gets a mentoring session with Novartis, Adjutec Pharma gets a mentoring session with AstraZeneca and Hemispherian with AbbVie.

Participants

  • Hemispherian Adam Robertson, Chief Scientific Officer
  • "Novel vaccine platform for animal health" Hanne Winther Larsen, Professor Institute of Pharmacy, University of Oslo
  • "RNA-DEGRA" Francis Combes, Research Scientist SINTEF
  • GreinDx Ove Solesvik, CEO and Co-Founder

  • Adjutec Pharma Bj?rn Klem, CEO

  • "TREM2-agonist for Alzheimer’s disease therapy" Lars Nilsson, Professor, Dept. Pharmacology, University of Oslo

Published Feb. 29, 2024 10:09 AM - Last modified Feb. 29, 2024 10:32 AM