About Ultimovacs
Ultimovacs is a pharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies against cancer. The lead product candidate is UV1, a peptide-based vaccine inducing a specific T cell response against the universal cancer antigen telomerase. UV1 is being developed as a therapeutic cancer vaccine (TCV) for use as monotherapy, and as a platform for other immuno-oncology drugs which require an ongoing T cell response for their mode of action. Ultimovacs is performing a broad clinical development program with clinical trials in Europe and the USA.
Ultimovacs was established in 2011. The company and its proprietary technology is based on pre-clinical and clinical research on immunotherapies conducted at the Oslo University Hospital. The company is privately held, mainly by Norwegian private investors/family offices.
Ultimovacs is located at the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park in Oslo, Norway, and is an active member of Oslo Cancer Cluster.
Ultimovacs has started preparations for a potential listing of the Company on Oslo Børs (Oslo Stock Exchange) and the aim is to complete the IPO during Q1-19.
The main purpose of the IPO is to ensure financing of operations and core development projects for the following 5 years with intent to file for Marketing Authorisation of UV1.
Team
Øyvind K. Arnesen
Chief Executive Officer
MD with 10+ years of clinical experience and 10+ years of experience from pharma industry with positions as Medical Director Norway (Bristol-Myers Squibb), Medical Director and Head of Clinical Operations Nordic countries in Boehringer Ingelheim. Member of The National Commission for the Investigation of Research Misconduct in Norway. Board member of the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Industry Association.
Audun Tornes
Chief Operating Officer15+ years' experience within pharma industry, incl. international line and project management positions in GE Healthcare. R&D management experience from big-pharma and start-ups. Inventor of more than 10 patents in diagnostics and cancer therapy.
Gustav Gaudernack
Chief Scientific OfficerProfessor and head of Unit for Immunotherapy at Radiumhospitalet from 1995 to 2011. Initiated over 20 clinical studies in cancer vaccination, including the first peptide vaccine study in cancer world wide (mutant RAS). Has more than 50 patents and 15 licenses of monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines and cancer diagnostics.
Ingunn Hagen Westgaard
Head of Research10+ years’ experience within R&D from academia and biotech industry within oncology and immunology. Regulatory experience from national and European regulatory authorities. Consulting experience in clinical development and medical communication. Ingunn Westgaard holds a PhD in cell biology.
Gunilla Ekström
Managing Director Ultimovacs ABMD, PhD from Karolinska Institutet, and has extensive experience of managing advanced pre-clinical and clinical pharmaceutical development projects and organizations. Having worked some 25 years in the pharma industry, her background includes companies such as Astra Zeneca, Orexo, Karolinska Development and Immuneed.
Sara Mangsbo
Chief Development OfficerIn parallel with her position as Chief Development Officer at Ultimovacs, Sara also holds an Associate professorship and Associate senior lectureship in protein drugs at Uppsala University. Sara is the founder of and previous CSO of Immuneed AB and have 10+ years in the R&D field of immuno-oncology with experience in antibody and peptide-based drugs along with advanced ex vivo and in vivo modeling.
Hans Vassgård Eid
Chief Financial Officer20+ years' experience within business development and venture- and private equity investments across multiple industries. Senior management positions within business development, most recently at PHARMAQ, the global leader within aquatic animal health. Consulting experience from McKinsey & Company.
Torill Trones
Head of Office10+ years’ experience within office management in pharma-, bio-, and medtech industry. Previous Office Manager with Oslo Medtech and Clavis Pharma ASA.
Joachim Midttun
Financial ManagerBefore joining Ultimovacs, Joachim spent 6.5 years with Deloitte, most recently as Manager within transaction services in Financial Advisory. Acted as interim CFO in Orona Norway, a subsidiary of a European group headquartered in Spain. Joachim Midttun holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics from BI Norwegian Business School.
Gudrun Trøite
Director Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance10+ years of experience from medium size Norwegian pharmaceutical companies. Project manager for international clinical trials, experience from regulatory pre- and post marketing processes and quality assurance. Previous Clinical Operations Director in Photocure. Holds a PhD in medical physics.
Jens Bjørheim
Chief Medical Officer Pharmacovigilance Responsible PersonMD PhD with clinical oncology experience and scientific merits within immunology and cancer genetics. 10 years of experience from pharmaceutical industry in Headquarter, Nordic and Baltic positions in Pronova Biopharma (BASF), Novartis, Clavis Pharma and AstraZeneca.
Steinar Aamdal
Senior Medical AdvisorProfessor of Oncology at the Department of Oncology at Oslo University Hospital since 2002 and, since 2004, Head of the Section for Clinical Cancer Research and Resource Development. Active member of several international societies, such as, ESMO, ASCO, AACR. Also member of EMA Scientific Advisory Group for Oncology (SAG-O). More than 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Wenche Rasch
Head of International Clinical Development20+ years' experience within clinical research and development in pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Previous Head of Clinical Development, Aker BioPharma/BioMarine and VP Clinical R&D, Clavis Pharma. Wenche Rasch holds a PhD in human physiology from Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Øivind Foss
Head of Clinical Operations10+ years’ experience within clinical research and development from AstraZeneca, Clavis Pharma and Pharmalink Oncology. Previous Director of Clinical Operations at Pharmalink Oncology. Øivind Foss holds a Dr Scient degree in sport physiology from the Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education.
Roald Skurtveit
Product Development ManagerBefore joining Ultimovacs, Roald held a position as project leader and senior scientist in IFE. His previous experience includes 10 years as project leader for drug development in Amersham Health and GE Healthcare where he has lead projects from early development to filing for marketing approval. Roald also has experience from research and early stage development in Nycomed. Roald holds a PhD in physical chemistry.
Espen Basmo Ellingsen
ScientistMD graduate from Jagiellonian University in 2017. Clinical experience from residency at Drammen sykehus – Vestre Viken HF.
Board of Directors
Jonas Einarsson
(Chairman)
Bjørn Rune Gjelsten
Ole Kristian Hjelstuen
Leiv Askvig
Ketil Fjerdingen
Kristin Wilhelmsen
