Spin Outs
Cantargia
Cantargia AB was founded in 2009/2010 by Thoas Fioretos and Marcus Järås (Lund University), Kjell Sjöström (Innovagen), and by LU Bioscience. The company specializes in antibody-based cancer therapy. After initially focusing on treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and pancreatic cancer (PDAC), new antibodies designed for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases have extended the portfolio. The IL1RAP-binding antibody CAN04 (Nadunolimab) is Cantargia’s lead asset. CAN04 is investigated in multiple clinical trials in combination with chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Clinical trials using CAN04 as 1st line treatment for PDAC in combination with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel have reached phase III and regulatory submission is planned for 2023. CAN04 trials for treatment of NSCLC and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) are in phase II and phase I, respectively. CAN10 is a new antibody against IL1RAP developed for treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The aim for CAN10 is to start the first clinical trial in the first half of 2023.
IMMUNOVIA
Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by Prof Carl Borrebaeck and Drs Sara Ek, Mats Ohlin and Christer Wingren, and an US office (Immunovia Inc., Massachusetts) was established in 2017. The company develops tools to diagnose complex diseases, in particular focusing on abdominal cancers based on their core technology platform, IMMray™. The strength of IMMrayTM, which is based on antibody microarray analysis, is the ability to decipher large amounts of information from easily accessible sample formats, such as serum or plasma. In December 2015, a large diagnostic retrospective study with 1400 blood samples, showed that IMMray™ PanCan-d had a test accuracy of 98% in detecting early stage (I/II) exocrine pancreatic cancer, making it the first blood-based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in the world. IMMray™ PanCan-d, was commercially launched in 2021 and is today available for patients in the US.
Paindrainer
PainDrainer AB was founded in 2018 by Prof Carl Borrebaeck, Dr Maria Rosén and Göran Barkfors. The driving force was the possibilityto create a digital tool allowing patients with chronic pain to track and understand how the their daily activities impacted their quality of life. Already in 2019, a beta version of the AI-based patient-centered Paindrainer App was available for the first testing in a clinical study at UCSD in USA. The aim was to quantify the effect of the digital tool on a few parameters based on validated patient reported outcome measurements. The possibility for the patients to take control of their chronic pain and to be able to understand how different activities and their combinations affected the pain was shown to be highly successful. Since then, several clinical studies measuring several more relevant parameters have been performed at major US clinics which have proven that the majority of patients, using the Paindrainer App, experienced a lower pain intensity, increased physical function and an increased quality of life. This makes Paindrainer, which is a CE-marked medical device, class I, the only pain App based on clinical evidence and a so called 360° patient centricity©. Since January 2022, Paindrainer is available for patients in Sweden.
Paindrainer's website (in Swedish)