Companies

AnaCardio is developing novel inotropic agents with a unique mode of action based on the ghrelin signaling pathway. Unlike current therapies, AnaCardio’s treatment enhances cardiomyocyte contractility and force, thereby increasing cardiac output and potentially improving organ function. This may lead to greater functional capacity, quality of life, and reduced risk of hospitalisation and mortality. AnaCardio’s treatment concept arises from groundbreaking research from the Karolinska Institute and Professor Lars Lund, the company’s founder.

Atrogi’s technology platform, is based on an innovative concept of stimulating the 2-adrenergic receptor to address various metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and muscle-wasting conditions. The company’s lead asset, ATR-258, has successfully completed a Phase I safety study involving both healthy volunteers and individuals with type 2 diabetes. This first-in-class, once-daily oral treatment will improve metabolism in fat and muscle cells, without causing muscle loss or cardiovascular strain.

Bonsai Biotherapeutics is developing breakthrough drug candidates that restore the immune system’s tolerance to the proteins mistakenly attacked in MG and ANCA vasculitis. The drug candidates consist of modified versions of the targeted proteins produced in a biological manufacturing process. The company’s most advanced therapeutic candidate, TOL2 for myasthenia gravis, is expected to enter a placebo-controlled clinical trial in MG patients in 2026.

Buzzard Pharmaceuticals is developing a powerful interleukin-1 inhibitor, Isunakinra, for the treatment of solid tumours in conjunction with a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. Isunakinra is a chimeric protein that binds to IL1R1, effectively inhibiting signalling with high potency. The rights to the drug were obtained from Eleven Biotherapeutics in 2017, and the drug was repositioned from ophthalmology to oncology. Isunakinra is currently undergoing Phase 1/2 trials involving patients with solid tumours at the Baylor Research Institute in Dallas, Texas.

Egetis Therapeutics is developing Emcitate® (tiratricol), a drug candidate with the potential to become the first approved treatment for patients with MCT8 deficiency. Emcitate® was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in February 2025 with subsequent launch in Germany. The company targets to complete its NDA submission in early 2026 for FDA approval and planned launch in the United States. The company is also developing Aladote® (calmangafodipir), a first-in-class treatment aimed at preventing acute liver damage from paracetamol overdose, with Orphan Drug Designation in the US and in the EU. Egetis is preparing for a pivotal Phase 2b/3 trial with the candidate.

Empros Pharma is developing EMP16, an oral weight-loss maintenance medication that combines the established weight-loss and diabetes drugs orlistat and acarbose with a novel controlled-release formulation to prevent fat and carbohydrate absorption, acting locally in the gut, as opposed to systemically like most other drugs. The goal is to create a safe oral first-line treatment for this rapidly growing patient group, with potential opportunities in weight maintenance, in combination with other drugs. Empros Pharma has already announced positive topline data from a Phase 2b trial demonstrating greater weight loss than orlistat alone and a further trial showing improved tolerability in combination with appropriate dietary advice.

EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals is developing a novel oral first-in-class therapeutic, glasmacinal (previously EP395), to reduce exacerbations of COPD. It is well known that one class of antibiotics (macrolides) has unique anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to its antimicrobial effects. EpiEndo harnesses this, removing the antibiotic properties that would otherwise increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance when used chronically, to develop a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs. Glasmacinal successfully completed a Phase 2a trial in 2024.

Geneos Therapeutics has developed a proprietary platform, GT-EPIC™, to create novel and distinctly personalised cancer immunotherapies (PICs) that have already been shown to save the lives of advanced HCC patients. The company’s strategy centres on targeting all of a patient’s self-antigens (mutations) produced by individual patient’s tumour cells – neoantigens – thus reducing the chance of ‘tumour escape’ to a minimum. The immunotherapies target solid tumours, beginning with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer. However, the technology is broadly applicable to essentially any type of cancer. The very promising results from the company’s phase Ib/IIa trial involving second-line HCC patients was published in Nature Medicine and demonstrated several complete responses that suggest a potential cure for a patient group with a historically poor prognosis.

KAHR Medical has created a proprietary Multifunctional Immune Recruitment Protein (MIRP) platform to develop next-generation treatments for both solid and haematological cancers. The company’s drug candidates utilise various methods to synergistically disable cancer defences and activate a targeted response involving both innate and adaptive immunity. KAHR’s lead product, DSP107, is a first-in class CD47x41BB targeting agent currently undergoing clinical development for patients with solid tumours (such as colorectal adenocarcinoma), with several ongoing clinical and preclinical programs.

Lipum is developing a biological anti-inflammatory drug candidate SOL-116 that features a novel mechanism of action targeting BSSL. The company is initially focused on treating rheumatoid arthritis while also exploring other inflammatory diseases with significant unmet medical needs, such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. Lipum has completed a Phase I clinical study assessing SOL-116 in healthy volunteers and a group of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Mendus develops off-the-shelf, allogeneic immunotherapies, enabling the immune system to summon an active, long-lasting immunity against tumour cells. By stimulating dendritic cells, a key cell type in the immune system, Mendus’ immunotherapies have the potential to improve long-term survival for cancer patients. The company’s lead candidate vididencel is currently being evaluated in three separate clinical trials, targeting acute myeloid leukaemia and ovarian cancer.

Microbiotica specialises in the development of live biotherapeutic products, targeting cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. The company’s technology rests on a purpose-built microbiome profiling platform backed by clinical data that identifies specific bacterial strains that may have clinical benefit in well-defined patient populations. The company’s lead candidates include MB097 (consortium of nine bacterial strains), a co-therapy designed to enhance immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma, and MB310 (consortium of eight bacterial strains), a monotherapy targeting ulcerative colitis. The company is currently running two independent clinical Phase 1b trials to evaluate the safety and initial signals of efficacy.

Nimvec Therapeutics is developing transformative, potentially curative gene therapies for both rare and prevalent diseases without triggering a problematic immune response. These pioneering gene therapies are based on a simian polyomavirus (SV40) that humans are immunologically naïve to. Nimvec has created a proprietary production cell line (SuperVero™) that, for the first time, allows the production of SV40-derived vectors suitable for therapeutic use. Combining SuperVero™ with its genetically engineered viral vector, Nimvec™, Nimvec has developed a fully integrated gene therapy platform unique in its intrinsic capability to deliver transgenes without eliciting immune responses to the vector or the transgene product. The focus of the team is to show proof-of concept of its platform and initial candidate AM510 by demonstrating its tolerisation approach to treating type 1 diabetes.

Prokarium has developed a microbial immunotherapy that can replace the current standard of care for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and can be expanded to muscle-invasive disease and other solid tumour indications based on a broad and strong patent portfolio. Bladder cancer is one of the costliest cancers to treat, representing 5% of all new cases in the US, of which 70% are diagnosed at the NMIBC stage. Prokarium’s most advanced therapeutic agent ZH9 is a modified bacterium that acts as an immunotherapy currently being evaluated in a multicenter Phase I clinical trial in NMIBC patients in the US. The study initially aims to demonstrate safety, and if successful, advance to characterise the clinical efficacy of ZH9 in a pre-planned expansion cohort.

Strike Pharma is developing a proprietary technology for targeted LNP delivery, enabling in vivo CAR-T therapies for autoimmune disease and cancer. Specifically the technology provides a solution for CMC challenges related to long-term storage, based on an affinity conjugation technology that allows post-storage attachment the targeting antibody to the LNP.

Vitara Biomedical is developing the next generation care for preterm infants. Neonatal Support Technology, known as EXTEND, is intended to bridge the gap from mom to NICU for babies born too soon. The technology provides a fluid-filled environment similar to the mother’s womb for newborns delivered as early as 22 weeks - only halfway to full term - potentially improving their chances of survival and reducing life-long complications.

Xspray Pharma develops improved formulations of marketed PKIs using its innovative HyNap technology, resulting in highly soluble amorphous product candidates with the potential to improve treatment outcomes. The company’s lead candidate, Dasynoc, demonstrates a therapeutic effect comparable to its crystalline equivalent at a 30% lower dose, highlighting the potential of the company’s technology. Xspray Pharma aims to enter the market as a competitor to established blockbuster drugs as soon as the drug substance patents expire, bypassing secondary patents. Over the coming five years, 23 PKI-drug substance patents are expected to expire, creating a substantial market opportunity.