About Corline
Corline develops, manufactures and markets heparin based solutions to improve kidney transplantation, cell therapies and applications in the evolving field of regenerative medicine.
Company presentation
CEO Statement
Motivated by the prospect of better patient health, Corline focuses on pro-healing solutions in areas with significant unmet clinical needs.
We are proud to say that for a multitude of regenerative medicine applications we are starting to see strong support by scientific data that the Corline heparin technology has protective effects against unwanted immune responses associated with transplantation and cell therapies, and that it is also beneficial for the engraftment response. It is clear that patient recovery may be improved.
In addition to our pharmaceutical development pipeline, with Renaparin® for the use in kidney transplantation, Cytoparin™ for cell therapy, and the new and exciting in vivo projects done at our subisdiary Corline Pharma at the AstraZeneca BioVentureHub, we partner with medical device companies to improve blood and biocompatibility of medical device implants.
Corline’s commitment to true innovation is fueled by our highly skilled people and an active network of frontline research professionals. We hope that our high-striving commitment to “solution-finding” is visible throughout our website.
Welcome, and thank you for your interest in Corline!
Henrik Nittmar
Chief Executive Officer
Company History
Corline was founded in 1991 by three former employees of the Swedish pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Pharmacia with the goal to commercialize an extra corporeal blood pump. The blood pump used a unique and proprietary coating technology that later became the basis of the Corline’s offering to the medical device industry – the Corline Heparin Surface, CHS™. During 1997-2005 Corline delivered more than 100,000 coronary stents coated with CHS™.
As result of a research partnership with Uppsala University a new line of business was added in 2005, where heparin based compounds were used to treat biological products for applications within regenerative medicine.
Through this partnership Corline further developed its technology base to allow heparin to be immobilized onto living cells and the surface of tissues without compromising viability, and ultimately improving transplant outcome through enhanced biocompatibility. Due to its exclusive value proposition, Corline is set to be a leader in the surface modification sector.
Management
Henrik Nittmar, CEO since 2008
PhD
Share holding: 554 201
Henrik has a background in Technology and Innovation Management. He is founding partner of four high-tech companies and currently serves as Non-Executive Board Member of PiezoMotor Uppsala AB, a worldwide supplier of high-tech micro motors. Henrik holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from Chalmers University of Technology, as well as a PhD in Innovation Management from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Åsa Holm, Regulatory and Quality Assurance Manager since 2021 (interim)
PhD
Share holding: 0
Åsa has over 10 years’ experience in the Pharma and Medical Device Industry where she has worked both in Development and Quality Assurance. She is currently a Quality Assurance and regulatory affairs consultant. As Corline’s Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance Manager, Åsa supports development projects
from A to Z and has a key role in project and product delivery. Åsa holds a PhD in Immunology/Microbiology
from University of Linköping, and was Post doc at University of Stockholm and Karolinska Insititute.
Fredrik Carlsson, Research Manager since 2011
PhD
Share holiding: 0
Fredrik Carlsson is an immunology scholar from the Uppsala University and has researched human innate immunity for over 10 years. He has extensive experience in pre-clinical animal and in-vitro models related to blood coagulation and complement system activation. During several years, Fredrik was an affiliate of the Nordic Islet Center, which is certified to use Islet of Langerhans in clinical transplantation to cure diabetes type 1 patients. He earned his PhD in Experimental Immunology from the Uppsala University in 2007.
Patrizia Caldirola, Project Manager since 2016
PhD
Share holding: 0
Patrizia has over 20 years’ experience in the pharma industry, from preclinical through clinical development. She has worked in pre-clinical development teams and as project manager and director in companies such Pharmacia, BioVitrum and Karolinska Development. Patrizia is responsible for managing the development of Renaparin through current clinical development. Patrizia has a PhD degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Gunnar Tufveson, Chief Medical Officer since 2018
Prof, MD
Share holding: 3 000
Prof. Tufveson has a background as a clinically active surgeon in the fields of kidney transplantation and transplantation of islets to patients with diabetes type 1. He has conducted research in both fields and is the author or co-author of more than 250 peer-review papers.
Board of Directors
Adam Dahlberg, Chairman since 2005
MSc
Share holding: 5 256 658
Adam Dahlberg is a Swedish Investor and Manager overlooking a diverse portfolio of shareholdings. Adam is also a member of the Crafoord family, most known for the establishment of the Swedish Medical Device company Gambro AB. Among others, he has invested in Qlik Technologies, Inc., a high-growth software company in Business Intelligence (Market Cap more than $2.5bn, NASDAQ: QLIK), PiezoMotor Uppsala AB, a game-changing technology company (micro motors) and Senzime AB, a company developing biosensors and instruments for on-line monitoring of for example blood glucose (AktieTorget: SEZI)
Adam is a major shareholders in Corline Biomedical and not independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management
Lars Sunnanväder, Non-Executive Member since 2005
MSc
Share holding: 80 000 (family Sunnanväder owns 2 324 741 shares)
Lars Sunnanväder is a serial entrepreneur of Swedish origin, focusing in the Medical Device and Biotech industry. Since 1982 he was founding CEO and Chairman of Jostra AG, a company that grew to be market leader in Cardiac Surgery in Europe (sold in 2003 to Getinge AB). During his career, he successfully founded, grew and exited a number of other ventures, such as Joka Kathetertechnik GmbH (Intensive Care, sold in 1993 to Gambro AB), Jomed AG (Interventional Cardiology, IPO in 2000, SWX) or Jolife AB (Resuscitation, sold in 2011 to Physio-Control, Inc.). Today Lars is co-CEO of the LS Medcap Holding Company together with his daughter Annika. He is also an investing Non-Executive for many Life Sciences start-ups and SMEs, predominantely in the space of minimally invasive technologies, such as Bentely Innomed GmbH, Medica GmbH, Cardiobridge GmbH, and Qatna GmbH.
Lars is related to major shareholders in the Sunnaväder family. Independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management.
Gunilla Ekström, Non-Executive Member since 2017
PhD
Share holding: 8 214
Gunilla Ekström has extensive experience of managing advanced pre-clinical and clinical pharmaceutical development projects and organizations. Having worked some 30 years in the pharma industry, her background includes companies such as Astra Zeneca, where she was Global Product Director for Analgesia, Orexo (Head of Preclinical R&D), and Karolinska Development where she assumed the role of VP Operations. In addition Gunilla serves on the board of a number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry such as Emplicure AB, Gabather AB, Strike Pharma AB and Disruptive Pharma AB.
Gunilla is independent of major shareholders in Corline Biomedical and independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management.
Henrik Krook, Non-Executive Member since 2018
PhD, MBA
Share holding: 6 000 (of which 4 500 via affiliated company)
Henrik Krook has a broad Life Science perspective and a solid network gained from over 15 years of leader roles in settings varying from University Hospital to Big Pharma and Biotech. He has direct experience in general management, business development, clinical trial management, commercialization and strategy formulation from Roche, Novartis, Medivir and Alexion. Henrik is currently VP Commercial Operations at Egetis Therapeutics and Senior Advisor to Affibody. Henrik holds a Master of Science in Pharmacy and a PhD in Immunology from Uppsala University as well as an Executive MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Henrik is independent of major shareholders in Corline Biomedical and independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management.
Magnus Nilsson, Non-Executive Member since 2020
PhD
Share holdings: 0 shares, 100 000 share options
Magnus Nilsson holds a PhD in medical sciences from the University of Uppsala, and between 2003 and 2011 Mr Nilsson was CEO of Vitrolife which supplies technology, equipment and disposables to the fertility healtcare sector. Subsequently and until April 2020 Magnus Nilsson was CEO and headed XVIVO Perfusion, a company focused on transplantation technology and supplies, a company that Mr Nilsson co-founded in 1998. In his role as CEO Magnus Nilsson has been instrumental in building sustainable and highly profitable operations based on development of complex and innovative medical products. Mr Nilsson has also designed and navigated pivotal clinical studies together with leading transplantation surgeons in the US and Europe, studies that later were leveraged into commercial success.
Magnus is independent of major shareholders in Corline Biomedical and independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management.
Tomas Lifvendahl, Non-execuitve member since 2022
MSc
Share holding: 115 000
Tomas Lifvendahl has extensive experience working with small high-growht companies both in a public and private environment. The last 10 years, Mr Lifvendahl has been part of the European scene for development of green energy production, and in parallel invested in biotech companies such as XSpary Pharma AB. He holds the position of Chairman of the Board at Tripod Energy AB.
Tomas is independent of major shareholders in Corline Biomedical and independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management
Scientific Advisory Board
Rutger Ploeg, Scientific Advisor since 2017
Professor, MD
Share holding: 0
Rutger Ploeg is Professor of Transplant Biology at Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the Oxford University, where he also assumes the roles of Director Clinical & Translational research and Honorary Consultant Transplant Surgeon. Starting his career at the Leiden University Medical Centre, he became interested in organ donation and ischaemia/reperfusion injury and took his PhD at the university in 1991. He is a well-recognised expert in the field of organ preservation and has published in well-reputed scientific journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine.
Rutger is independent of major shareholders in Corline Biomedical and independent of Corline Biomedical and its senior management.