European start-ups are invited to take advantage of the unique pilot-scale testbed for biological drugs.
The Testa Center is a purpose-built bioprocessing testbed with modern upscaling equipment open to anyone wishing to verify their latest technology or scale up their processes. In a new initiative “Testa Center outreach” the center is reaching out beyond the Nordics to innovative small and medium-sized life science companies, involved in the development of biological drugs, diagnostic components, or other reagents. Together with Business Sweden, they are actively approaching companies in Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland which could benefit from this unique opportunity.
The main objective of Testa Center is to promote the growth of the life science sector and to bridge the gap between discovery and industrialization. Testa Center is a public-private partnership, established as a collaboration between the Swedish government and Cytiva, a global company that provides technologies and services advancing the development and manufacture of therapeutics. It is owned and operated as a non-profit company by Cytiva and is based on the premises in Uppsala, in the greater Stockholm region.
Since Testa Center opened in September 2018, more than thirty projects have successfully been run in the facility. To date, it has mainly attracted Swedish companies, but this new initiative is aimed at attracting European projects and companies to the facility.
“We want more people to benefit from what at Testa Center can offer,” says Helena Ströberg, project manager at STUNS, the foundation for collaboration between the universities of Uppsala, business and society. “We hope that the project will create new value chains around this type of innovation environment, which is exceptionally strong here in Uppsala.”
STUNS has been in collaboration with Testa Center since its establishment in 2018. In 2021, STUNS together with Business Sweden have been running the outreach initiative with funding from Vinnova. Bianca Dochtorowicz, the administrator for international cooperation at Vinnova, explained; “We have chosen to invest in mature innovation environments that have a track record of yielding amazing results in Sweden. We have also invested in AstraZeneca’s Bioventure Hub and MobilityXlab.”
Testa Center outreach hopes to find 20 suitable companies in Europe, three of which will be given the opportunity to come to Testa Center and run their experiments. The selected companies will, in addition to having access to the facility and its equipment, have access to the knowledge and expertise of Testa Center staff, who will provide support in designing experiments and making quick iterations in experimental design, with the ability to pivot when needed. By coming to Testa Center the projects will be able to minimize risk, increase the chances of attracting capital, and accelerate the opportunities for industrialization.
”Sweden is an export-driven economy and with the Testa Center, our innovation clusters will be enriched with foreign talent and investments. This will maintain Sweden’s strong position in the area of innovation and further strengthen its position across important markets”, says Marie Claire Maxwell, Head Talent Attraction, Business Sweden.
“Our vision is to accelerate the journey of world-changing innovations. Sweden is at the forefront of biological production, and we want to position ourselves as a highly interesting player for European companies. In addition to new value chains and new investments, this will further increase both technical and business-related competence in biological production here in Uppsala and in Sweden,” says Lotta Ljungqvist, CEO of Testa Center.
Helena Ströberg Lotta Ljungqvist Marie Claire Maxwell
For more information, please contact:
Helena Ströberg,
Project Leader, STUNS
+46 72 577 04 51
Lotta Ljungqvist,
CEO Testa Center
+ 46 18 612 00 00
Marie Claire Maxwell,
Head Talent Attraction Business Sweden
marieclaire.maxwell@business-sweden.se
+46 72 207 12 56
About Testa Center
Testa Center is a non-profit company owned by Cytiva. Testa Center is a major initiative between the Swedish government and Cytiva to secure the growth of the life science industry and its manufacturing capabilities. The main objective of Testa Center is to bridge the gap from discovery to industrialization. The center offers businesses and academia globally a modern, pilot-scale testbed for projects and education in the production of biological products e.g. monoclonal antibodies, peptides, protein, vaccine, and viral vectors (non-GMP, up to Bio-safety level 2 and 500 liters). In this flexible facility, assisted by the experienced staff, users can perform a wide variety of projects, including scale-up of parts of a process, or a complete process from frozen cell bank vial to purified protein.
About Business Sweden
Business Sweden is commissioned by the Government and Swedish industry to help Swedish companies grow global sales and international companies invest and expand in Sweden.
