Strong link forming between life science hot spots of California and Sweden

Joe Panetta and Helena Strigård, CEOs of the industry organizations, Bicom California and SwedenBIO

In a recent mapping of the Swedish and Californian life science sectors, several common areas of strengths were identified, notably immuno-oncology, rare diseases/orphan drugs and cell and gene therapy. This has spurred a new link forming between these life science hot spots to secure that opportunities for innovative and brilliant minds to join forces in tackling health challenges are not lost. 

The collaboration has taken off with a networking event bringing together some 70+ selected companies, investors and academic actors from Sweden and California to brainstorm about how to overcome obstacles standing in the way of innovations in these fields. But the initiative is just as much about connecting on a social level, making it easy to knock on each other´s doors when needed, says Helena Strigård, CEO of SwedenBIO, the Swedish life science industry organization.

– The stakeholders behind this particular event are already an amazing group of actors and the companies who participated are really the best of the best in these fields, which makes me confident that important research collaborations and B2B relationships will come out of this, says Strigård. 

Behind the event stands both the US embassy to Sweden and the Swedish embassy to the US, along with industry actors such as Swedish American Chamber of Commerce, Amcham, Biocom California as well as regional investment agencies of Sweden and the Karolinska Institute Science Park. 

– Biocom California is excited to collaborate with SwedenBIO as we identify opportunities for partnering today and in the future, says Joe Panetta, president and CEO of Biocom California and continues.  

– Sweden offers incredibly innovative research and a rich variety of therapeutics, and California is home to the largest biotechnology ecosystem in the world. 2020 proves the importance of international collaboration as we work together to overcome the pandemic and to accelerate success for life science companies across the globe. 

Having the embassies on board is an important signal that there is a mutual interest in the US and Sweden to connect in this vital field of industrial and academic research. 

– Life sciences is a sector of strategic and economic importance to the U.S and Sweden bilateral relationship. We are excited to work together with SwedenBIO and the other stakeholders to further promote this relationship, says Terri Lee Tyminski, Deputy Senior Commercial Officer, U.S. Embassy Sweden.

– The event showed that there is a great interest, energy and potential for further collaboration between Sweden and the US in the Life Science sector. We belive the event will result in concrete business cooperation’s and look forward to continuing working together to create business opportunities between Sweden and the US, concludes Cecilia Lif, Trade Counselor, Embassy of Sweden Washington D.C.

View the program here: Hidden Gems of the Swedish Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline

Download the report here: The Swedish Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline 2020 (SwedenBIO)  To get the list of all the 420 projects, contact helena.strigard@swedenbio.se