Inven2 makes a difference by turning research into services and products that benefit society. In 2016, we clearly saw the value of this work, which we carry out on behalf of the University of Oslo and all the health trusts in the South-Eastern Regional Health Authority.

The value can be measured in monetary terms, but, even more important, in the form of ground-breaking new treatments and medical technology equipment. You can read more about this in the ‘success stories’ section.

The companies we have established and still own shares in are now worth almost NOK 8 billion. They are spearheaded by cancer companies that develop innovative therapies for types of cancer where there is a great medical need: Nordic Nanovector is developing a treatment for a type of haematological cancer, and Vaccibody is developing a vaccine that will trigger the immune system to kill cancer cells. A lot of interesting developments are taking place in other health companies too, of which I would particularly like to mention Ostomycure. They have developed a stoma product that has now been CE-approved and is on its way onto the market. In addition, research on arthritis treatment conducted at the small Betanien Hospital in Skien has now been licensed to Astellas. The pharmaceutical company is well under way with clinical trials that, if they confirm the research findings, could mean that a new treatment will be available in five years’ time.

Inven2 alone cannot turn research into products and services that society needs. We are dependent on a well-functioning ecosystem of good partners. In this context, I would particularly like to mention our collaborations with Oslo Medtech, OsloTech and Oslo Cancer Cluster on the incubators Aleap and Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator. These incubators help start-ups in their development towards the market and free up our capacity to develop new inventions.

We take our social mission of increasing value creation from research very seriously, and play a special role in relation to helping to develop the health industry in Norway. Early-phase project funding is still the biggest bottleneck. New innovation project funding from the University of Oslo will help to ensure that considerably more of the many good ideas that university researchers come up with will lead to value creation for Norway in 2017. That is important now that Norway is having to restructure.

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