Jackpot for the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Bona Postulate Award 2025 ceremony

At today's Wake Up Uppsala at UKK, the regional business community gathered to present the Bona Postulate Award 2025 to companies showing strong potential for continued success. We can now proudly announce that three of the ten winning companies have emerged from research at our Faculty of Pharmacy. One of them is Extem Pharma AB, which with a flexible production platform drives innovation in modern pharmaceutical research.

“The Bona Postulate Award recognizes local companies that have both achieved results and show potential to further growth. For us, this award is an amazing opportunity to gain access to networks, mentors and administrative support. In addition, it provides important confirmation that we have a good business idea: Small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing is needed to accomplish individualized drug therapies and clinical trials,” say Christel Bergström and Mattias Paulsson, who together with Henrik Rönnberg are founders of Extem Pharma AB.

Also present at UKK to accept this year's Bona Postulata Award was Ola Spjuth, Professor of Pharmaceutical bioinformatics, who together with research colleague Jordi Carreras Puigvert have founded Phenaros Pharmaceuticals, a company that, by integrating AI, phenomics and automation, is expected to accelerate drug discovery and to assess the potential of new drug candidates.

“Our research group is currently installing our third robotic facility at BMC and we carry all this experience with us into Phenaros Pharmaceuticals. We also bring the Attractive Innovation Project 2024 award, secured pre-seed financing and several paying customers, so we are on solid ground as we will soon transition to operational mode. The Bona Postulata Award adds further proof that Phenaros have the potential to both establish and grow, and the local visibility that it generates is of course an extra bonus,” states Ola Spjuth.

The third winning company with a connection to the Faculty of Pharmacy is Lea Cares, founded by Viktoria Engqvist, a former student of pharmacy at Uppsala University. This innovative beauty tech company has in a short time established itself in the cosmetics industry with a patented technology that promotes the body's natural production of collagen and keratin, resulting in stronger and healthier hair, skin and nails.

“We aim to broaden our line of products that contribute to healthier nails, skin and hair, but future applications within, for example, industry and medical technology are also plausible. Not too long ago, I didn't know that there was a word for what I do. But once I understood what it meant, yes, I want to be an entrepreneur. It's a title I'll take with me into the future,” says Viktoria Engqvist, who currently works as a product developer at Lea Cares.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: private, Mikael Wallerstedt