Invest in Finland

Finnish city Kuopio is growing centre for expertise in gene-based medicines

19/12/2011

In September this year, the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co out-licensed a portfolio of gene therapy products to a new Finnish company, FKD Therapies Oy, located in the city of Kuopio in eastern Finland. The agreement further boosted the growing international reputation of Kuopio as a centre for the development of gene-based medicines.

According to Dr Nigel Parker, co-founder and managing director of FKD, the company will benefit from the gene technology research expertise of the A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, located in Kuopio. Another reason for FKD’s decision to locate in Kuopio is the presence of Ark Therapeutics Oy, which is a fully certified production facility for the commercial production of gene-based medicines. FKD also received valuable assistance from HealthBIO, Kuopio Innovation’s Biotech Competence Cluster, when setting up its operations.

Under the terms of the agreement between Merck and FKD, the Finnish company has an exclusive licence to develop and commercialise a recombinant adenoviral interferon alfa 2b (rAd-IFN) for the treatment of superficial bladder cancer. The agreement also provides FKD with the option to develop two other investigational programmes, a recombinant adenoviral p21 (rAd-p21) to treat glaucoma surgery failure and conditionally replicating adenoviral technology (CRAV) for the treatment of solid tumours. In return Merck has taken an equity stake in FKD.

According to the American Society of Cancer, bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world affecting some 75,000 new patients each year in the United States alone and is the most expensive cancer to treat on a lifetime survival basis.

Source: FKD Therapies Oy, Kuopio Innovation