The Swedish government and GE Healthcare are opening Testa Center - an innovation center in Uppsala, Sweden, to boost the commercialization of new technologies and support manufacturing capabilities in the life sciences sector. The 27,000 sq. ft. space houses four bioprocessing laboratories with GE Healthcare technologies for testing new discoveries for the production of biopharmaceuticals, the world’s fastest-growing class of medicines.

 
The Swedish government, which has invested around €10 million in Testa Center and has identified life sciences as one of its top five partnership programs, is striving to increase collaboration between the public sector, business and academia to strengthen the country’s competitiveness and innovation capability. Earlier this year, the government opened an office that is fully dedicated to life sciences.
 
“This impressive test bed, Testa Center, which GE Healthcare chose to develop in partnership with the government promotes innovation, strengthens competitiveness and will help us provide more efficient care in the future. This is important for Sweden and our life sciences strategy, as we are facing tougher health challenges globally. People grow older and chronic and lifestyle-related diseases are increasing. Life sciences is a knowledge-intensive sector with a high growth potential,” says Mikael Damberg, Minister for Enterprise and Innovation.
 
Swedish biotechnology company BioLamina is the first company to run a project at Testa Center. Biolamina develops and manufactures protein-based reagents, Biolaminins used to create reliable and robust processes to develop therapeutic cells from stem cells. The company recently entered into a collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to support the development of new cell therapies targeting Parkinson’s disease, heart failure and loss of vision. BioLamina will use Testa Center to scale-up its production capacity, helping it deliver more reagents to its global customer base.
 
“With the increasing demand of our high-quality laminins within the cell therapy industry, we need to scale-up our production capacity,” says Kristian Tryggvason, chief executive officer of BioLamina. “Testa Center gives us a unique possibility to do this internally instead of relying on large global contract manufacturers.”
 
In addition to the investment coming from the Swedish government through its innovation agency, Vinnova, GE Healthcare has invested around €4.5 million in the center. 
 
The center is owned and operated as a non-profit company by GE Healthcare in Uppsala that also provides operational support and expertise for project owners. The project owners retain full control of their intellectual property and data.