Meet our partners: Emplicure
Emplicure AB is a small enterprise with big potential. Applying its patented bioceramic technology platform to innovations that respond to unmet needs, the company aims to improve the lives of both patients and consumers worldwide. We teamed up with Anna Franzén, Clinical & Regulatory BDO, to learn more about the importance of rolling up the sleeves whenever needed.
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Emplicure AB, with five full-time employees and a few consultants in the premises at Uppsala Business Park, is one of the smallest companies among SweDeliver's industrial partners. But as history teaches us: Size is not everything. Emplicure AB recently completed its first clinical pharmacokinetic study of Empli03, a drug candidate against chronic pain, and the results give every reason for optimism.
“With every opioid prescription comes the risk of developing an addiction. Not least in the United States where abuse and overdoses present society with enormous problems, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now calling for safer opioids. In Empli03, we combine buprenorphine, a pain-relieving substance, with our technology platform and are thus able to control the release while making manipulation to abuse the substance more difficult. This provides a very good safety profile, and our initial study has helped set direction for our next step,” says Anna Franzén, Clinical and Regulatory Business Development Officer at Emplicure.
(Image removed) Anna Franzén, Emplicure AB
You joined from UU Innovation where you gave researchers advice before commercialisation. Now you operate within an innovation-driven small business. What have you learned from this step?
“Perhaps most of all how much you actually have to deal with in a small company. Here, everyone must be constantly prepared to roll up the sleeves, whether it is to assemble an office chair or prepare for a board meeting. I must also emphasize the necessities of prioritizing, following a distinct strategy, daring to make brave decisions and, above all, to believe in what we are doing, otherwise things simply won't happen.”
A lot is happening at Emplicure right now, can you identify more reasons for your progress?
“I have been an employee since autumn 2021, and in a small team it is essential that every recruitment takes into account more aspects than just knowledge and competence. We are literally like a small family where everyone has to function together, and what above all characterizes our working days here at Emplicure is that we have formed a superb team with great driving spirit and commitment.”
Emplicure is also part of SweDeliver since summer 2020, what would you say characterizes the center?
“In brief: Openness and Generosity. Our time in SweDeliver has made it obvious how extremely important it is for us as a small enterprise to have access to knowledge exchange and infrastructures outside our own corridors. It is our ambition to prioritize SweDeliver's meeting places as far as possible, and we always take important values home with us.”
What does your involvement currently include?
“In addition to consistently making our specific competences available within SweDeliver, we currently have master's student, Carolina Lopera Londoño, with us who is conducting her degree project with a focus on analysing alternative release methods for substances in drugs. Our ambition is that this will generate relevant knowledge of value for the entire center.”
And what happens next at Emplicure?
“We are identifying big potential in assisting people who want to quit smoking, and are therefore developing white snuff (snus) without the carcinogenic substances in tobacco. By implementing our technology platform, we control the releases of both nicotine and added flavors, and we aim to, within our subsidiary Amplicon and potential partners, launch our product as a healthier alternative for an international customer segment.”
FACTS EMPLICURE AB
- Is a privately held Swedish pharmaceutical and consumer product oriented company with focus on research and product development.
- Develops new patentable pharmaceutical- and consumer products based on the company's technology platform for controlled release.
- Works with unmet medical needs and known pharmaceutical substances.
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CONTACT
(Image removed) Anna Franzén, Emplicure AB
Clinical & Regulatory BDO
Anna.Franzen@emplicure.com
text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt