Celebrating 13 SmiLe companies fighting cancer

Today we celebrate UN World Health Day by paying tribute to 13 awesome SmiLe companies fighting cancer in different ways; from early diagnosis to drug development and other advanced cancer treatment therapies.

Cancer is one of the most common diseases today. In Sweden alone, it is estimated that one in three will get some form of cancer during their lifetime. In addition to all the human suffering and tragic deaths caused by this disease it also has a big impact on society in the form of rising healthcare costs and increased strain on the healthcare system. 

Located in one of Sweden’s largest life science clusters in Lund, SmiLe supports a number of talented scientists working in the field of cancer in commercializing their innovations and bringing new solutions to the market that could improve the health of millions of people around the world. These SmiLe companies represent the entire spectrum of expertise - from cancer diagnosis and treatment to drug development and personalized healthcare - and battle different aspects of the disease.

Immunovia is a company that focuses on the diagnosis of diseases where early detection is of major importance, and where similar tests do not exist today, or are not good enough. The company has developed a blood-based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, a severe form of cancer with only a ten percent chance of five-year survival. 

SAGA Diagnostics has developed a unique ultrasensitive cancer diagnostic and monitoring assay, that can detect cancer in a blood sample and that can be used for example to measure treatment response and allow earlier and better therapeutic decisions.

Cantargia is developing a very promising antibody drug, primarily for pancreatic cancer and a form of lung cancer, a targeted treatment for reducing unwanted side effects currently undergoing clinical trials.

Asgard Therapeutics works in the field of cancer immunotherapy, a therapy that uses the body’s own immune system to help fight cancer. The company aims at being the first in the world to develop a cancer immunotherapy based on direct cell reprogramming and the goal is to provide patients with an off-the-shelf, completely personalized therapy system.

Xintela is a former SmiLe company which, in addition to regenerative stem cell treatments, focuses on developing a treatment for the most common and most aggressive form of brain tumor in adults, glioblastoma. 

Acrivon is another successful incubator company, that specializes in accelerated drug development in oncology, using a unique approach that can precisely matches the therapy with patients who will benefit, increasing efficacy and reducing toxicity.

Clinical Laserthermia Systems has developed a commercial laser treatment, for minimally invasive treatment of cancerous tumors. The products are marketed for image-guided laser ablation.

Other SmiLe companies, focusing on improving cancer diagnostic equipment are B!BB Instruments and the incubator company Saga Surgical, developing improved tissue biopsy instruments. In addition, several SmiLe CRO companies offer expertice in pharmaceutical research globally, such as Truly Translational, Red Glead Discovery and Saromics Biostructure. And last but certainly not least; Cellevate, a company that offers the next generation of cell culture systems, to provide life science researchers with more realistic in-vitro models (3D).

We are extremely proud of these companies and we support their important mission of eradicating cancer and improving the health and wellbeing of generations to come.

For more information, please contact: Ebba Fåhraeus, +46 (0)734 000 433, ebba@smileincubator.life

---

---