Our upcoming events include first up, the rooftop mingle with the British and French chambers of commerce on October 4th. We hope to offer a different yet select group of contacts for you. If you have not yet signed up or thinking of it, please do, and bring a friend to join - don't delay! Secure your ticket here!

AstraZeneca is a multinational science-led biopharmaceutical company. The company focuses on developing and producing genuinely innovative medicines and improving access to them to deliver the greatest benefit to patients, healthcare systems and societies globally.

From enhancing the understanding of disease biology and discovering new ways to target the drivers of disease, to better predicting clinical success and pioneering new approaches to engagement in the clinic and beyond, AstraZeneca is building and investing in scientific capabilities and technologies to help us advance science and achieve the next wave of breakthroughs.

I am responsible for strategy, build and run for IT across both Oncology and BioPharmaceuticals R&D. My global team use technology in an aim to help researchers transform the speed and quality of our discovery and delivery of medicines to patients. In short, we put the "IT" in scientist. My global team consists of around 700 employees based mainly in US, UK Sweden, India and Mexico.

The overall Research and development phases takes totally 5–15 years. Imagine an idea pipeline that starts with tens of thousands of ideas. Our first step is to decide which ideas we want to move forward with. After narrowing it down to about a thousand ideas, we have our Target that after a lot research get to few candidate drug. Pre-clinical studies are done in laboratory and animals to understand if the potential medicine is safe to introduce into humans. 

After the candidate drug is ready it’s time for Clinical trials in humans starting with phase I trials with small groups of healthy human volunteers (small molecules) or patients (biologics) to understand how the potential medicine is absorbed into the body, distributed and excreted. 

If successful it moves to Phase II trials on small- to medium-sized groups of patients to test effectiveness and tolerability of the medicine and determine optimal dose.

Few are successful to reach next phase which is Phase III trials, those are done in a larger group of patients to gather information about effectiveness and safety of the medicine and evaluate the overall benefit/risk profile. Last step for the successful ones is to seek regulatory approvals for manufacturing, marketing and selling the medicine.

My team and I provide IT support to shorten this processing time and improve decision quality. If we can present the correct information at the beginning of the process, that enable the scientists to make better choices of the target, safety, molecule, patient with higher probability of success to be brought forward, it lead to saving time and resources.

Together we optimize scientists’ daily lives through technology. We’re making lab spaces more digital and improving global connectivity. But we’re also committed to transforming R&D by enabling data science, AI and digital. For example we integrate the lab instruments, collecting data, and structuring information for the foundation We provide the tech foundations and capabilities to make R&D data ‘FAIR’ – findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. For example use new technologies and go through millions of articles that we compare with earlier tests to evaluate which ideas are worth continuing. Scientists at AstraZeneca use AI solutions we built to narrow down to the top strong ideas to conduct experiments on instead of having 10 000 unsure ideas.

We are democratizing AI tools to help scientists make better, faster decisions in the quest for new medicines. And we build, spot and support cutting-edge technologies to enable study teams to transform clinical trial programs and to develop digital therapeutic and diagnostic products.

I do not think that technology is the one contributing factor that has led to AstraZeneca being able to cure more diseases. It is instead a combination of a lot of different components. Although, many options today would not have been possible if it was not for IT.

I consider the company successful if we contribute to our goal of creating a better life for the patients. Increasing IT is not the goal; the goal within AstraZeneca is to create innovations and medicine that help people. We aim to take part in assisting colleagues in creating solutions, such as eliminating cancer as a cause of death. No matter how cool and advanced our technology is, there has to be an issue to solve. Our innovations are of no use if it is not serving the patients in the end.

I have been working at AstraZeneca for 18 years, since 2004. My career started as a trainee at SKF after finishing my degree in Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at KTH in Stockholm. Since then, I have worked in different fields as a consultant. In Hamburg, Germany, I started a subsidiary of a Swedish company that took off. After a few years, I switched to AstraZeneca in Sweden after having kids.

The 2022 Swedish Election Results

On September 11th, the citizens of Sweden went to the polls and voted in the general, regional, and municipal elections. In the general election, the voters elect representatives for the 349 seats in the parliament (Riksdagen). The parliament then appoints the government and head of state, holding office for four years until the next election. There have been eight parties that have exceeded the four percent minimum for keeping representatives in the parliament. 

Since 2014, the Social Democrats have been the leading party in Sweden. The recent election has been focused on the power balance between the center-left parties and the right-wing side. The center-left parties include the Social Democrats, the Center Party, the Green Party, and the Left Party, led by Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson leads the right-wing side, which consists of the Moderates, the Sweden Democrats, the Liberals, and the Christian Democratic party. 

The electoral race was close and we did not receive the official results until Wednesday, September 14th, when all the absentee votes were counted. The right-wing parties obtained 176 seats, getting a majority in Riksdagen, while the center-left parties gathered 173 mandates. The right-wing populist party Sweden Democrats passed the Moderate party with 20,5 percent of the total votes making them the second largest party after the Social Democrats at 30,3 percent. 

The then incumbent Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson resigned, leaving the right-wing parties to form a government. It is essential for Sweden that the process of creating a new government moves quickly. The moderate leader Ulf Kristersson is negotiating with the other right-wing parties, he has until October 12th to form a new government. 

For more information on the election, press here. 

On September 8th, the Norwegian Embassy in D.C. hosted a First Mover`s Coalition event. The First Movers Coalition is a unique global green energy initiative aiming to decarbonize seven industrial sectors. After less than one year in operation, the coalition already has 55 member companies including Swedish companies Volvo, SSAB and Vattenfall AB. By using low-carbon technologies to decarbonize at a sufficient speed, the companies send an important message to the rest of the market.

The event had an impressive panel including the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre. He was joined by Varun Sivaram, the Managing Director and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and the representatives from the private sector; Robin Millican, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Breakthrough Energy, as well as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Deputy CEO at Yara International, Lars Røsæg. The panel held an important conversation on green energy technology moderated by Josh Freed Senior Vice President for the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way.

Norway joined FMC earlier this year and the country has mainly been focusing on trade and investment such as green shipping, offshore wind, green aluminum and carbon capture storage. Both Hydro and Northvolt have collaborated on a recycling plant for battery materials and aluminum, which will be the first one in Norway. One of the topics for discussion covered how public private partnerships are essential for FMC to get innovations to market.

If you want to read more about First Mover`s Coalition, press here.

On Wednesday, September 21, SACC-DC attended an exciting event “Market Solutions to Climate Imperatives” hosted by the Institute of Sustainable Development and SACC-USA at SACC-NY´s office in Manhattan. The event focused on transforming the climate change discourse toward concrete solutions, opportunities, and investments to create a more sustainable future. We heard welcome speeches by Anna Throne Holst, President at SACC-NY, and Karin Hammar, Executive Director at SACC-USA. Stephen Jordan, CEO Institute for Sustainable Development, introduced the conversations by presenting the positive impact of increasing engagement in climate questions on the movement.

David Livingstone, the Senior Advisor to the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, gave an overview of the First Mover`s Coalition. Solutions for climate challenges were presented by Charles Di Leva, partner at Sustainability Frameworks. He talked about how the public and private sectors must work together to make fundamental changes for the future. Lastly, Myrrh Caplan, the National Vice President of Sustainability at Skanska, talked about climate solutions in the building industry and the challenges and opportunities for green housing.

Your company has the opportunity to be assisted by a Business Associate or a trainee with short-term projects aiming to increase your knowledge about specific markets. Read more about our Trade Services and how to make a request here.

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce, D.C., in collaboration with The British-American Business Association and the French-American Chamber of Commerce, welcomes you to join us for a rooftop networking reception on October 4th. Take this opportunity to meet representatives from three of the most influential European countries while enjoying an open bar and a wonderful view of the D.C. skyline. The tickets can easily be purchased here.

This year’s SACC-DC Golf Open will be held on October 13 at Westfields Golf Club, VA. We are looking forward to an exciting day full of networking with DMV business executives, primetime golfing mixed with fun activities and prizes followed by an exclusive dinner reception. The tournament is presented in a proud partnership with the Whitman-Walker Foundation to benefit and raise awareness of equal health care for all.

Thank you to our Platinum Sponsor Nammo for contributing to our biggest annual event. We also want to thank our Gold sponsors, Barnes & Thornburg, Haypp Group, Kelley Drye, and Pillsbury, as well as our Silver Sponsors ABB and Volvo for making this event possible.

Click on the link here to find out more about SIREUS and register for the event!

Price for SACC early bird until the 1st of July $295 (non-member $395) and $395 (non-member $495) afterwards. You can buy your tickets here.

Visit our membership page to join as a new member, or renew your membership through the membership portal. SACC DC organizes many events throughout the year to give our members access to professional networking. We also tailor trade missions for Swedish companies interested in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. Whether an individual with a keen interest in or connection with Sweden living in D.C. or a company looking to establish new relationships, we can help you reach your next goal.