Award for Alzheimer’s disease drug
BioArctic’s co-founder Lars Lannfelt and CEO Gunilla Osswald receive the Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award together with co-founder Pär Gellerfors. Photo: Simon Hastegård/Bildbyrån
The drug that slows down Alzheimer’s disease is already being used by more than 20,000 patients in 10 different countries – and could soon be available in Europe too. The success story is down to the two founders of BioArctic Lars Lannfelt and Pär Gellerfors and the company’s CEO Gunilla Osswald. Their achievement is now being recognised by the Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award.
“Through pioneering research and strong business acumen, they have contributed to a major innovation in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.” This is part of the citation when the Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award goes to the two founders and CEO of BioArctic.
“I am very happy and proud. I feel both gratified and honoured to receive the award,” says Lars Lannfelt, Professor Emeritus at Uppsala University and one of BioArctic’s founders.
Arctic mutation led to the company BioArctic
Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the protein amyloid-beta misfolding and forming protofibrils that damage nerve cells. Lars Lannfelt was able to show back in the 1990s that protofibrils played an important role in the course of the disease. This was discovered through studies of a family in northern Sweden with a heritable mutation that increased the risk of Alzheimer’s. Lannfelt could see that the family had a change in the genome, later dubbed the ‘Arctic mutation’, which led to an increased formation of protofibrils. This discovery gave him new ideas about possible ways to treat the disease.
A few years later, Lannfelt succeeded in developing an antibody that could attack the protofibrils. He then got in touch with his former colleague Pär Gellerfors.
“Lars called me because he knew I had experience of working on patents. Then he said: ‘I have a really good idea. How about setting up a company and making a drug for Alzheimer’s disease?’ Then I said, ‘Of course’,” recalls Gellerfors, who has a PhD from KTH and is co-founder of BioArctic.
The two founders managed to establish a partnership with the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai. Since then, they have worked together to develop the antibody-based drug Lecanemab.
Pär Gellerfors founded BioArctic together with Lars Lannfelt in 2003. Photo: BioArctic
BioArctic’s lab on Kungsholmen in Stockholm conducts research into Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and ALS. Photo: Simon Hastegård/Bildbyrån
Sold in ten countries
Today, more than 20,000 patients are being treated with Lecanemab – the first drug on the market that has been shown in clinical trials to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
“I have always been motivated by the desire to help patients with better medicines and it’s great to feel that we are now helping patients around the world. It’s a privilege to have worked with Lars and Pär to realise their vision, together with colleagues at BioArctic,” says Gunilla Osswald, who holds a PhD from Uppsala University and has been CEO of BioArctic since 2014.
The drug is currently approved in 10 countries, including the United States, Japan and China. Osswald says that 17 other countries and regions, including Europe, are currently investigating whether to approve it for sale.
“We are waiting and hoping for approval in Europe. Following approval, there will be price and subsidy discussions, which usually take about a year. So we’re hoping for a launch next year.”
Desire to create a Swedish pharmaceutical company
If this happens, BioArctic has agreed with Eisai to sell the drug jointly with them in the Nordic region. To prepare for this, they have already opened subsidiaries in Norway, Denmark and Finland. Being personally able to sell the drug has always been important to the founders.
“A vision that Lars and I have had all along is that we want to build BioArctic into a ‘real pharmaceutical company’, engaged in both research and sales,” Gellerfors says.
Both he and Osswald have previously worked for Swedish pharmaceutical companies that no longer have headquarters in Sweden. Lannfelt, too, remembers how valuable it was to have the pharmaceutical companies close by in the 1980s and 1990s. Gellerfors continues:
“Sweden used to have a huge pharmaceutical industry. Then the decline set in. The owners did not keep control of the shares and virtually all the companies disappeared. Our goal is to try to change this by staying in Sweden and creating a company that becomes a significant player.”
Considering BioArctic’s development over the past few years, they are well on their way. In addition to the Alzheimer’s drug, they have developed a similar treatment for Parkinson’s disease that is now being tested on patients.
“When they founded the company, it was just Pär and Lars. When I came in, there were barely 20 employees. And now there are around 130 of us and we are a world leader in making selective antibodies against misfolded proteins. We are also well advanced with a technology to better deliver medicines to the brain via something we call BrainTransporter. It’s fascinating that a Swedish company has managed to develop in this way,” says Osswald.
Lars Lannfelt, who has studied Alzheimer’s since the 1990s, believes that it will be possible to stop the disease in the future. Photo: Simon Hastegård/Bildbyrån
Believes Alzheimer’s disease can be cured
As the drug for Alzheimer’s disease has become available in more and more countries, research has continued to make it better. Lecanemab, which is currently given via infusions in a clinic, will soon be able to be taken subcutaneously, i.e. self-administered at home by the patient in the same way that diabetics take their insulin.
“When the medicine can be administered subcutaneously once a week, it will hopefully make treatment easier for patients as they can then take it at home. But we also continue to work on new drug projects, and I actually believe that we will be able to stop the disease completely in the future,” says Lannfelt.
Sandra Gunnarsson
Award citation
The 2025 recipient of the Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award has successfully addressed a growing global health problem. Through pioneering research and strong business acumen, they have contributed to a major innovation in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. For their outstanding achievement in taking an academic discovery all the way to an approved drug with the potential to change the lives of millions of people, the award goes to Lars Lannfelt, Pär Gellerfors and Gunilla Osswald.
About the prize
The Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award recognises individuals who have made a crucial contribution to the successful commercialisation or implementation of a discovery or innovation based on research or education at Uppsala University, with considerable benefit to society.
The prize was established in 2021 by the Uppsala University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award Foundation, which seeks to raise the visibility of Uppsala University’s entrepreneurial culture. The prize money of SEK 500,000 is made possible by donations from the foundation’s ten founders.