2019-11-26
Vinnova awards 10 million SEK over two years to secure Sweden's ATMP future
The Advanced Therapies field is one of five recipients of funding under the program ’Vision Driven Health’, recently launched by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova. Through “vision-driven innovation environments”, the program supports consortia of both public and private actors with necessary competencies to set ambitious but achievable long terms goals to meet important health challenges through system level change. The advanced therapies project vision is for ‘Sweden to become a world leader in development and implementation of advanced therapies by 2030’. The project began the 15th of November 2019 and has a total planned financing of 9 833 400 over the first two years of the project.
The Advanced Therapies Vision Driven Health project is coordinated by Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and begins with 17 partners from healthcare, industry, regulatory authorities, academia and relevant institutions. “The gene and cell therapy field is on the brink of international breakthrough. We have to act now to secure our ability to deliver effective, innovative patient treatments in an economically viable manner”, says project leader Jukka Lausmaa. “We will secure this by pooling knowledge and competencies across sector boundaries, from patients to academics, healthcare, industry and public authorities, to address current and foreseeable hinders”.
This new project builds on Sweden’s previous commitments to advanced therapies including Swelife-ATMP (ends December 2020) and the Centre for Advanced Medical Products (CAMP, ends 2023). Swelife-ATMP was charged with identifying challenges and opportunities in Sweden for advanced therapies, as well as building the networks and support systems to maximise successes. CAMP focusses on the technologies, facilities and resources needed to raise the national level of capability in production and delivery of advanced therapies. The Vision Driven Health project will complement and work closely with CAMP, Swelife-ATMP and other initiatives in the field towards common goals of national collaboration and communication. Special focus will be on addressing the following challenges;
The Advanced Therapies Vision Driven Health project also brings in the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) as official partners, a testament to the importance of the unique goals of the project. In line with the intentions of the program, both funding and partnerships will be flexibly adapted to address identified needs during the course of the five-year project.
“The innovation environments are established in areas where Sweden has great potential to make a difference”, says Jakob Hellman, acting head of division health at Vinnova. The other projects receiving funding are ‘Zero vision for malnutrition in the elderly’, ‘An antibiotic smart Sweden’, ‘Zero vision cancer’ and ‘Information-driven healthcare through AI application’.
Follow updates on this project at their project page http://atmp.knowitjonkoping.se//about-vision-driven-health/
See Vinnova’s press release http://www.vinnova.se/en/news/2019/11/new-effort-on-vision-driven-innovation-environments-in-health/