Norway and its largest life sciences market, the Oslo region, are characterized by their outstanding level of biomedical research and valuable discoveries within the life sciences. Therefore Norway’s strategic focus is on those areas where Norwegian research is of the very highest caliber: functional genomics, cancer, neuroscience, cardiovascular, immunology and blue and green biotech research.
Cancer is the research strength par excellence in the Oslo Region and has also led to major commercial successes, from Nycomed Amersham (now GE) imaging systems to PhotoCure’s PDT therapy. Of all the areas of biomedical research, it has received by far the largest and most continuous support. The vast majority of Oslo’s several hundred biotechnology, pharmaceutical or diagnostics companies are entirely or at least partially cancer-related.
This world-renowned sector was recently given a further boost with the launch of the Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC), www.oslocancercluster.org. This powerful new initiative unites all the various stakeholders – academic, public, government and industrial – and aims to become the most innovative and creative center in Europe for cancer diagnostics and treatment. First steps include the new Center for Stem Cell-based Tumor Therapy (SENIT) www.stemcell.no, a possible new seed fund and science park and applying for Norwegian Center of Excellence status.
The Oslo Cancer Cluster is built on strong foundations. Dating from the early 1900s, Oslo’s Radium Hospital www.radium.no is now Northern Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer centre. Already, together with the Center for Cancer Research and the Norwegian Cancer Registry, the Norwegian Radium Hospital has built a dynamic biomedical cluster for research into cancer and commercial spinout of cancer diagnostics and therapies. The Center for Cancer Research is best described as an international reference institution. The center’s research recently earned the characterization “very good on the border of outstanding” by international auditors, and it co-operates extensively with the National Cancer Institute (US) and other leading cancer research institutions in the US and EU. Several of the institute’s group leaders are leaders in their field and co-operate closely with researchers and industry. The institute is investing NOK 1 billion into a new research building that will be complete in 2009.
The Cancer Registry’s database contains over 50 years of information on all cancer cases and pre cancerous diagnoses in Norway. The registry is developing numerous clinically-oriented special registries for various tumor forms. Its epidemiological cancer research covers a wide number of projects, and resulted in 70+ scientific papers in 2005. The registry’s funding comes directly from the national budget, via Norwegian and EU research projects and some private partners.
Norway’s and Oslo’s greatest strength in the life sciences still lies in the quality of the research conducted here, and the access to one of Europe’s most highly educated workforces. Whilst cancer research is well known, outstanding advances have been made in other areas as well. In cardiovascular research for example, three of the seminal trials – on beta-blocker, ace inhibitors and cholesterol lowering drugs – were performed here. Similarly four of the key discoveries in neuroscience were made by Oslo-based scientists.
The section on the Oslo region’s diagnostics and imaging industry describes one of the major ongoing successes in the Nordic countries. An increasing tendency for international firms such as GE and Applied Biosystems to use Oslo as a test bed for new technologies and ideas is described, including the latest departure - wireless medicine networks. Excellent patient recruitment and follow-up thanks to the patient registry system means Oslo is also highly rated by pharmaceutical companies such as MSD, Roche, GSK and Pfizer for high quality clinical trials, as a case study for AstraZeneca further confirms.
With its four clinical and research hospitals, numerous research institutes within life sciences and close international links, the Oslo region is well positioned both with respect to public private co-operation and international collaboration. Infrastructural strengths in the health registers, clinical trials and public support also lay a solid foundation for future growth.
Norway and Norwegian institutions co-operate widely with international researchers through Nordic initiatives, EU research programs and extensive bilateral agreements with countries in North America, and elsewhere. In 2005, the Norwegian Ministry for Education and Research set aside NOK 10 million specifically to promote a government strategy for increased research and technology co-operation with the USA and Canada. This will build on an existing trend: from 1981 to 2002, the number of scientific articles produced by researchers located in Norway in conjunction with researchers in the USA and/or Canada grew from 117 to 826. Norway also partakes actively in the EU’s research framework programs. As of late 2005, 28 per cent of Norwegian applications to the EU’s sixth framework program were successful, compared to an 18 per cent average across the EU. Norway partook in 11 per cent of all EU projects (576), with over 3000 Norwegian researchers and research financing for more than NOK 1.5 billion.
Population: 1 039 500 in Oslo region of 4,640,200 in Norway
# of Students: 60 000 in Oslo region of 210,000 in Norway
GDP/Capita: NOK 391 399 in 2003 (45 percent above EU average)
Unemployment: 2.8 % (August 2006)
Corporate Tax: 28 %
R&D: 2 universities, 3 colleges and 26 specialized colleges, 75 R&D institutions (including universities and research-based colleges), 4 science parks, 6 Centers of Excellence and 5 Centers for Research-based Innovation, i.e. close to 50 % of all R&D in Norway is located to the Oslo region
Tax Deduction: R&D expenses in all enterprises, which are eligible for Norwegian taxation
Norwegian Bioindustry Association: www.biotekforum.no
Oslo Bio: www.oslo.technopole.no
MedCoast Scandinavia: www.medcoast.org
NorBioBase: www.norbiobase.no
The Scandinavian Life Science database: www.scandinavianlifescience.org
ScanBalt: www.scanbalt.org
Oslo Teknopol: www.oslo.teknopol.no
Innovation Norway: www.innovasjonnorge.no
The Research Council of Norway (NFR): www.forskningsradet.no
Oslo Teknopol
P.O. Box 527 Sentrum,
N-0105 Oslo, Norway
Phone: (+ 47) 22 00 29 90
Fax: (+47) 22 00 29 91
Website: www.oslo.teknopol.no
Contact: Susanne Werner, Project Manager
E-mail: info@oslo.teknopol.no