2 February 2018

Oncoinvent selected to receive BIA funding from the Research Council of Norway

Press Release 02.2018: Oncoinvent is pleased to announce today that Oncoinvent has been selected to receive BIA project funding from the Research Council of Norway to help develop its lead product Radspherin®.

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BIA Call Results
The Programme Board/Expert Committee for BIA has awarded funding to forty-six project(s) from among the one hundred and sixty grant applications submitted under the call for proposals with a deadline of 11.10.2017. A total of NOK 483 million was allocated to the call.

Oncoinvent will now enter into contract negotiations with representatives from the Research Council to conclude the details of the BIA project including the allocation of funds, project milestones and timelines. The company will announce the details of the BIA grant once the contract has been signed.

About BIA
The Programme for User-driven Research-based Innovation (BIA) promotes the capacity and willingness of Norwegian trade and industry to innovate by providing support for R&D projects based on companies’ own strategies and challenges, independent of field or topic. The BIA programme comprises an open competitive arena for grants to Innovation Projects for the Industrial Sector, where the key criteria for awarding funding are research content, level of innovation, potential for value creation, and relevance and benefit to society. The programme is the Research Council of Norway’s primary instrument for ensuring that funding is available to all segments of Norwegian trade and industry seeking to become more innovative, competitive and internationally oriented through R&D. The BIA programme coordinates its activities with the SkatteFUNN tax incentive scheme and other programmes and instruments targeted towards R&D-based innovation within and outside the Research Council.

About Radspherin®
Radspherin® is a novel alpha-emitting radioactive microsphere designed for treatment of metastatic cancers in body cavities. The radium-224 based therapeutic, Radspherin® has shown strong and consistent anticancer activity at doses being essentially non-toxic in preclinical studies. It is anticipated that the product can potentially treat several forms of metastatic cancer. The first clinical indication for Radspherin® will be treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis originating from ovarian cancer. Peritoneal carcinomatosis is one of the most serious complications of gastrointestinal and gynecological malignancies.

About Oncoinvent
Oncoinvent AS is a privately held Norwegian company based in Oslo, Norway. The company is committed to developing new innovative products to provide better treatment options to cancer patients.

The company’s founders started Oncoinvent in 2010 with a view to designing better cancer treatments by applying known physical and chemical principles of selected novel materials in new ways to maximize their medical benefit while minimizing potential safety concerns. This approach has allowed the company to develop a rich development pipeline and to explore multiple technological avenues before selecting a lead product candidate for preclinical testing.

For further information, please contact:
Jan A. Alfheim, Chief Executive Officer
Cell: +47 46 44 00 45
Email: Alfheim@oncoinvent.com

IR enquiries:
Ole Peter Nordby, Chief Financial Officer
Cell: +47 41 28 71 79
Email: nordby@oncoinvent.com

Øystein Soug

Chief Executive Officer

soug@oncoinvent.com

Oystein Soug has over 15 years of experience in biotechnology, holding several management positions. Most recently, Mr. Soug was CEO of Arxx Therapeutics, where he led the company to initiate the clinical programme and was responsible for the merger with Dutch pharma company Oxitope Pharma to create Calluna Pharma. Prior to Arxx, he served as CFO and then CEO of Targovax, an Oslo listed biotechnology company, which went public during Mr. Soug’s tenure. Mr. Soug started his career in biotech as CFO of Oslo-listed radiopharmaceutical company Algeta. During this period, the company conducted a successful phase 3 trial, launched its radium-223 based prostate cancer drug Xofigo® and out-licensed the drug. Mr. Soug co-led the sale of the company to Bayer in 2014.  

Mr. Soug holds an MSc in Economics and Financial Markets from Universität St. Gallen in Switzerland in 1997

Anders Månsson

Chief Executive Officer

mansson@oncoinvent.com

Anders Månsson is a business executive with over 25 years of experience from management roles in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on commercialisation and M&A + licensing. Mr. Månsson has held leading roles in the industry both in his native Sweden and in other European countries, and he has worked extensively with the USA and Asia as focus markets in global roles.

Mr. Månsson holds a B.Sc. degree in Business & Economics from Lund’s University in Sweden as well as an MBA from Business School Lausanne in Switzerland. He has a broad-based industrial experience, featuring both large multinational companies such as Meda, Ferring & LEO Pharma, and including leading roles in start-ups and smaller biotech companies. On top of his executive role in Oncoinvent, Mr. Månsson holds two non-executive director positions serving on the board of EQL Pharma AB as well Immetric AB, the latter being an investment company focusing on life science.