Life science companies recognised as part of Nordic investment competition

Over 150 Nordic companies applied to the launch of the first-ever Nordic Life Science Investment Day, NLSInvest. Following a review of the applications by a pan-Nordic committee of industry leaders, 80 Rising Stars were ultimately selected to pitch to investors across three dedicated tracks: biotech/pharma, medtech/diagnostics and digital/e-health. 

From the 80 Rising Stars, one company from each track was selected as the category winner. The three winners will be awarded a package prize of 15,000 DKK, two registrations to NLSDays 2022, and one company presentation at the 2022 conference. This year, the NLSInvest Rising Star Award Winners are: 

Biotech / Pharma: ApoGlyx (Sweden) is developing small molecule inhibitors for Aquaporin-9. Aquaporins have been well recognised as important drug targets. Apoglyx’s most advanced approach targets sepsis, for which there is currently no cure.

Medtech / Diagnostics: Respinor (Norway) is developing a non-invasive, ultrasound based medical device for continuous diaphragm monitoring, with potential applications towards many aspects of critical care and respiratory medicine.

Digital / E-health: RetinaRisk (Iceland) is an app that helps determine individualised risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, one of the leading causes of blindness today, which can be prevented in over 90% of cases with early detection.

NLSInvest is a joint collaboration between Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark to highlight the unique phenomenon that all five excel in the same industry: life sciences. This phenomenon is increasingly gaining global attention and NLSInvest has now attracted 150+ investors, all eager to connect with Nordic companies.   

"We look upon this as the Olympics of life science innovation, where each Nordic country´s strength in this field is proudly demonstrated by the “best of the best” of our entrepreneurs," says Helena Strigård, CEO of SwedenBIO, the Swedish life science industry organisation and host of NLSInvest / NLSDays.  

This year’s NLSInvest Rising Star Awards are sponsored by SwedenBIO and BioInnovation Institute (BII), an international life science entrepreneurship initiative and part of the NLSInvest Committee. 

Bobby Soni, chief business officer at BioInnovation Institute, said: “We believe the Nordic ecosystem has all the ingredients required for success and are happy to see international investor interest in the NLSInvest Rising Star companies. Our view is that high-growth Nordic start-up companies must play on a global playing field, and the Rising Star Award is a step in that direction. We wish the participants and the winners of the competition continued success.”