About Ultimovacs
Ultimovacs is a small pharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapy against cancer. Our leading product is UV1, a therapeutic cancer vaccine (TCV) directed against human telomerase (hTERT). The vaccine is a result of many years of pre-clinical and clinical research at the Norwegian Radium Hospital. UV1 is a synthetic peptide vaccine.
The peptides included in the vaccine is based on observation of immune responses in patients with advanced malignant disease surviving several years after vaccination with a hTERT based therapeutic cancer vaccine.
The company is currently performing three clinical trials with UV1.
Two trials are documenting safety and the vaccines ability to activate the immune system against cancer cells expressing the hTERT fragments that are the components of the vaccine when given as a single treatment.
A third clinical trial is assessing safety and clinical outcomes when combining UV1 with ipilimumab in patients with malignant melanoma.
The major owners of Ultimovacs are Gjelsten Holding, The Norwegian Radium Hospital Research Foundation, Inven2 ,Canica AS, Sundt AS and Langøya Invest AS. Ultimovacs is located at Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park and is an active member of Oslo Cancer Cluster.
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.
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.
Jens Bjørheim
Chief Medical OfficerMD 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.
Solveig Brekke
Head of Clinical Development & QA20+ years’ experience within international clinical development, quality assurance and project management in pharmaceutical industry. Solveig Brekke holds an MSc in Pharmacy.
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.
Véronique Cruciani
Head of Laboratory10 years’ experience in Biotech industry. Previous Research Scientist and Laboratory Responsible with Affitech AS and Bayer AS.
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.
Board of Directors
Ketil Fjerdingen
(Chairman)
Bjørn Rune Gjelsten
Jonas Einarsson
Ole Kristian Hjelstuen
Leiv Askvig
