Karolinska Institutet launches new collaborations for innovation and research

Karolinska Institutet launches new collaborations for innovation and research

Karolinska Institute's wholly owned company, Karolinska Institutet Holding AB, has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson Innovation. The collaboration aims to strengthen innovation at Karolinska Institute and integrate it into product and business development, and implementation of health care. At the same time a research collaboration is established between Karolinska Institutet and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

As part of the collaboration, Johnson & Johnson Innovation will establish a life science innovation hub at Karolinska Institutet to work with Karolinska Institutet Holding AB, to support and drive the growth of life science companies rooted in academic medical research. Promising projects in the Nordic life science industry should be supported to develop services and products to support patients and consumers.

The collaboration benefits between Karolinska Institutet Holding AB and Johnson & Johnson Innovation serves to meet the needs of entrepreneurs in the pharmaceutical, medical technology and healthcare sectors. It will include knowledge sharing, establishment of coaching and scouting programs, investments in developing ideas into finished concepts, and funding for start-ups.

"One of the main missions of Karolinska Institutet is to help develop medical discoveries into innovations and products for the benefit of patients", said Professor Anders Hamsten, vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institutet. "An important part of our strategy for the years to come is to establish collaborations with industry so as to strengthen innovation at our university and support corporate development from new discoveries and the implementation in health care. The collaborations with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Janssen are an important step in that direction."

Johan Askling. Photo: Stefan Zimmerman
While launching this Karolinska Institutet collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Janssen Pharmaceuticals NV, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of  Johnson & Johnson, a number of research posts have been created for observational studies (Real World Evidence). The focus of this cooperation is the follow-up and effects of disease and treatment, using routine data from health care ("Real World Data") and how they relate to effects in clinical trials, all while social and economic factors will be evaluated. The research will initially focus on method development, depression, prostate cancer, psoriasis, and cancers of the immune-system. The collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Janssen will be led by Johan Askling, professor at the Department of Medicine in Solna.
"We will, among other things, study the relationship between data from randomized trials and observational data from clinical practice, in order to increase understanding of how these can be made comparable, and how observational data can be used as an adjunct to clinical trial data" said Johan Askling.