Stanko Skrtic: "SweDeliver gives reason for high expectations"
Just a minute ... Stanko Skrtic, new chair of SweDeliver, whose first impressions of the national competence center – with Faculty of Pharmacy as academic hub – best sums up: great capacity, genuine job satisfaction and high expectations.
(Image removed) Stanko Skrtic, Head of IS&EL at AstraZeneca R&D
What are your first impressions of SweDeliver?
“That I have entered a well-welded competence center where skilled researchers work together in a good spirit. To me, SweDeliver is characterised by a genuine job satisfaction that is already providing me positive energy, something I can hopefully return.”
What is the essence of this positive energy you describe?
“The medical needs of today are so extensive that no single organisation can face them alone. Thus, we have to merge our resources and efforts, and of course it is inspiring to be part of this meeting between all these researchers and companies. The fact that several partners are prominent in their respective fields further increases our ability to develop the innovations needed by the industry.”
What qualities do you hope to add to SweDeliver?
“As an experimental clinical researcher, I always carry with me the clinical benefit perspective: To throughout the entire process weigh the potential significance of the end product for the patient. I also hope that my previous experiences of international networking and translational research will add relevant value.
What does it mean that Janssen Pharmaceutica is now joining SweDeliver?
“That our center will have access to additional skills and perspectives. Among many positive things, Janssen Pharmaceutica's commitment puts a quality stamp on SweDeliver that can both spur our existing partners and generate increased contact areas.”
What can SweDeliver generate for the center's partners in the long run?
“We share a mission to develop smarter methods for drug delivery, and with joined forces I am convinced of our capacity to answer a number of key questions. It is also important that SweDeliver have established a structured collaboration between academia and industry, where promising PhD students and postdocs gain cross-border experience of great significance for the future supply of skills to our field.”
What will happen next in SweDeliver?
“With impressive efficiency, the organisation has built a well-functioning arena that, without squeaking, gathers researchers of high international standard. Now we have entered the operational phase, and my experience says that SweDeliver definitely has the potential to deliver results throughout the entire research program, generating future spin-off effects we can not yet predict. There is simply a legitimate reason for high expectations regarding this center.”
FAKTA: STANKO SKRTIC
- Head of Innovation Strategies & External Liaison, Pharmaceutical Technologies & Development vid AstraZeneca R&DE
- Extensive experience of board assignments in Swedish biotechnology
- Founding innovator of several small Life Science companies
- Extensive experience in experimental endocrinology, clinical pharmacology, preclinical research and various phases of clinical development work.
- More than 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals as preclinical researcher at Universität Marburg och NIH Imaging Center, and as an internal medicine doctor and clinical pharmacologist at the Gothenburg University Hospital
FACTS SweDeliver
- SweDeliver is a national competence center in drug delivery. With Uppsala University's Faculty of Pharmacy as the academic hub and 16 industrial partners, SweDeliver conducts research on parenteral, oral and pulmonary administration.
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text: Magnus Alsne, photo: AstraZeneca