About us
About AnaCardio
AnaCardio AB is a privately held Swedish, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel drugs to treat heart failure.
AnaCardio AB is a privately held Swedish, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel drugs to treat heart failure.
AnaCardio AB is a privately held Swedish, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel drugs to treat heart failure. AnaCardio was founded based on ground-breaking research from Karolinska Institutet showing improved contractility of the heart muscle through a unique and differentiated mechanism. Its lead program AC01 entered phase 1b/2a clinical development in heart failure patients in 2023.
Lars Lund, MD PhD
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO)
Lars H. Lund, MD PhD FESC FHA, is Professor of Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, and Senior Consultant at Karolinska University Hospital where he leads the heart failure research program. His expertise is heart failure phenotyping with a focus on ejection fraction, advanced heart failure therapy including devices and novel myotropes, and comparative outcomes studies as well as pragmatic registry-based trials. He has leadership positions in heart failure registries, trials and observational cohorts. He is or has been Associate Editor for or on the Editorial Boards of numerous journals and has over 350 publications in peer reviewed journals, 22,000 citations, and an H-index of 69.
Patrik Strömberg, PhD MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Patrik Strömberg has more than 20 years of experience from the pharmaceutical industry and has worked in leading roles in both R&D, innovation management and business development in companies such as AstraZeneca and, most recently, as Vice President, External Innovation, Sourcing & Evaluation at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi). He has a PhD in Biochemistry from Karolinska Institutet and earned an MBA from Stockholm University (Stockholm Business School).
Allan Gordon, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Allan Gordon is a cardiologist and Associate Professor in Cardiology at Karolinska Institutet. He has more than 20 years’ experience in leading clinical development positions in both Big Pharma and Biotech companies in Europe as well as in the US. He has designed, executed, and communicated clinical trials in both early and late development phases in particularly the cardio-vascular and metabolic space. His interest in heart failure research has been apparent both academically and in the pharma industry.
Marc Willuhn, PhD
CMC Director
Marc Willuhn has more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Previously, Dr. Willuhn was VP R&D at Fresenius Kabi and Head of the Innovation & Development Centre in Uppsala, Sweden, and Director of Process Development at Baxter Healthcare in Brussels, Belgium. Marc studied chemistry at Gerhard Mercator University in Germany and at McMaster University in Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany and carried out post-doctoral research at the University Rene Descartes in Paris, France.
Camilla Hage, RN Ass Prof
Clinical Coordinator
Camilla Hage leads the Karolinska University Hospital heart failure clinical research and clinical trials operations. As an expert om clinical heart failure research she is experiences in initiating, designing and coordinating clinical trials, coordinating the local clinical research program and running academic and sponsored national and international studies and trials, having the role as national coordinator for several of them. Her own research is focused on elucidating pathophysiological mechanisms and evaluating potential novel treatments.
Göran Westerberg PhD, Assoc Prof
Clinical Program Director
Goran Westerberg is a Clinical Pharmacologist and Regulatory Affairs professional with 35 years of experience from the pharmaceutical industry. Previous experience from senior management roles in Contract Research Organisations, Pharmacia, Pfizer, and various Biotech companies across Europe, US and Asia. He has been involved in designing and conducting >650 clinical studies including 35 first-in-human trials across several therapeutic areas. Goran resides in Italy and grows olives in his spare time.
Samuel Kvist, BSc
Business Controller
Samuel has several years experience in financial/accounting roles from the biotech industry, most recently from Oncopeptides. He also spent several years as an accounting consultant, working within many different sectors. He holds a degree in business law from Lund University.
Johan Sjödahl, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Johan Sjödahl has a background with more than 15 years in Biotech and Medtech industry from companies such as BioArctic, Bactiguard and Orkla and a wide experience from leading pharmaceutical development, managing contract organizations as well as from taking various Medtech products to market. He has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the Royal Institute of Technology.
Marianna Del Sole, PhD
Clinical Study Manager
Marianna has more than 5 years’ experience in clinical development and clinical operations. She has previously worked as CRA at EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer) in Brussels and at Sanofi and MSD in Sweden, overseeing and monitoring clinical trials in different phases and multiple therapeutic areas across all European countries. She has also experience as Clinical Research Coordinator, supporting and coordinating the daily clinical trial activities at the Neurology Institute ‘’Carlo Besta’’ in Milan.
Marianna is a biologist and has a Ph.D in Biochemistry from University of Bologna, Italy.
Elin Rosendahl, MSc
Chief Development Officer
Elin Rosendahl is an experienced clinical scientist and drug development expert with solid experience in all phases of clinical drug development and across multiple therapy areas and modalities. Elin has more than 20 years of industry experience and a decade in senior- and executive management roles.
Previous positions include VP Clinical Development at Vicore Pharma and Global Head of Clinical Program Management at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), and she holds a M.Sc. in pharmacy from Uppsala University.
Mark Quick, Chairman of the Board
Partner at Flerie Invest
Mark Quick is Flerie Invest AB’s Investor Director for Anacardio and is also a partner in Flerie which invests in venture and growth stage companies engaged in drug development and associated tools or applications tackling major medical challenges. Prior to Flerie, Mark spent 16 years with Recipharm, leading its M&A activity and completing some 25 transactions over this time to build it into one of the top five global CDMO’s . He was also a member of the Executive Committee. Before that he spent time at ICI, Medeva, Celltech and UCB in various business development and supply chain roles. He also has an MBA.
Lars Lund, MD PhD, Board member
Founder, Professor Karolinska Institutet
Lars H. Lund, MD PhD FESC FHA, is Professor of Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, and Senior Consultant at Karolinska University Hospital where he leads the heart failure research program. His expertise is heart failure phenotyping with a focus on ejection fraction, advanced heart failure therapy including devices and novel myotropes, and comparative outcomes studies as well as pragmatic registry-based trials. He has leadership positions in heart failure registries, trials and observational cohorts. He is or has been Associate Editor for or on the Editorial Boards of numerous journals and has over 350 publications in peer reviewed journals, 22,000 citations, and an H-index of 69.
Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD, Board member
Scientific advisor to 3BFHF and Founder & CEO of Lyfebulb
Dr. Karin Hehenberger has more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences sector, dedicating her career to applying medical science to impact people living with chronic disease. Prior to founding Lyfebulb in 2014, she served as an executive at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals (EYET) & Coronado BioSciences (CNDO) and had strategic management roles at Johnson & Johnson (Vice President Metabolic Strategy), JDRF (Senior Vice President Strategic Alliances), and McKinsey, as well as senior partnership roles at public (Brummer & Partners) and private (Scandinavian Life Science Ventures) multi-billion dollar investment funds. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Karolinska institute, and did her postdoctoral fellowship as a JDRF fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School.
Per Aniansson, MSc MBA, Board member
Investment Director Karolinska Development
Per Aniansson has more than 20 years of VC experience as
well as operational experience as CEO and CFO in severeral
VC backed start-ups. He has been responsible for several
significant fundraisings, IPOs and successful exits. Per holds
a MSc in engineering physics and an MBA from Insead.
Fredrik Lehmann, PhD, Board member
Venture Partner at Industrifonden
Fredrik holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Göteborg University and an executive MBA from Stockholm School of Economics. Fredrik have twenty years life science experience, both entrepreneurial as founder of a handful companies as well as operational as head of research, CEO and within CMC for various biotech companies. He joined Industrifonden as a venture partner during 2022.
Key Investors
Karolinska Development AB (Nasdaq Stockholm: KDEV) is a Nordic life sciences investment company. The company focuses on identifying breakthrough medical innovations in the Nordic region that are developed by entrepreneurs and leadership teams. The Company invests in the creation and growth of companies that advance these assets into commercial products that are designed to make a difference to patients’ lives while providing an attractive return on investment to shareholders.
Karolinska Development has access to world-class medical innovations at the Karolinska Institutet and other leading universities and research institutes in the Nordic region. The Company aims to build companies around scientists who are leaders in their fields, supported by experienced management teams and advisers, and co-funded by specialist international investors, to provide the greatest chance of success.
For more information, please visit www.karolinskadevelopment.com
Flerie Invest is an active long-term global biotech and pharma investor based in Stockholm and London managing a portfolio of around 30 companies in Europe, Israel and the US. The focus is on enabling pioneering organisations operating in the drug development and services space to succeed by providing them with resources and expertise. The portfolio includes a wide range of areas including immuno-oncology, metabolic diseases and biologics development and manufacturing organisations which have the potential to make a significant impact on health and wellbeing. Flerie Invest was founded in 2010 by Thomas Eldered, who also co-founded and built Recipharm to be one of the world’s top five pharmaceutical contract manufacturers.
For more information, please visit www.flerie.com
Industrifonden is a Nordic venture capital investor based in Stockholm. Industrifonden invests in breakthrough technologies and science-based innovation – the Industry of Tomorrow.
For more information, please visit www.industrifonden.com
Formerly Helsinn Investment Fund S.A., SICAR.
3B Future Health Fund is focused on investments in areas of high unmet patient need and aims to help companies with innovative technologies to transform new ideas into commercial solutions with the potential to impact health-related quality of life of patients. The Fund selects companies with technologies in a range of areas including cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, cancer supportive care, metabolic and gastrointestinal disorders, and dermatology conditions.
For more information, please visit www.3bfuture.com
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