Tuli Success Stories
Fighting against HIV pandemic
Researcher and biotechnology entrepreneur Paul Partanen became interested in the HI-virus as early as the 1980’s, when it was still considered to be a disease of certain marginal groups. Today, the grim results of AIDS can be seen globally. Partanen and his team are developing a method to suit early-phase diagnoses of HIV infection that could possibly prevent hundreds of thousands of fatal infections in the future.
According to Partanen, who works as the CEO for Next Biomed Technologies NBT, the growing epidemic is the biggest problem in especially Africa, but a time bomb is also ticking in Latin America, the former Soviet Union area and the Middle East. There are certain countries where the spread of the virus is already decreasing the part of the population who are in the working age.
“Luckily more people than just researchers are beginning to understand that it’s a pandemic – a globally spread epidemic – we are talking about. The HIV infection is spread especially via heterosexual transmission, and it is highly unlikely that a vaccine will ever be developed against the virus. Hence, the only measures against the pandemic are protection, education and testing”, says Partanen.
Partanen is highly experienced in biotechnology. His work background includes Finnish medical companies at which he has worked with infectious diseases and methods of cancer diagnosis.
“The beginning of the 1980’s was the first time when AIDS started to be considered as a viral disease. We had worked together with Antti Vaheri, professor of virology at the University of Helsinki, and his research group on retro viruses, and we had a hypothesis that the cause of AIDS would be a retro virus”, Partanen explains.
The hypothesis proved to be right. Later at the Pasteur Institute, the virus was insulated as part of a research from which Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2008. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family) that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening infections.
A quick test for early diagnostics
The biotechnological manipulation of proteins developed by Partanen’s company brings significant improvement to today’s methods of HIV diagnosis.
“Common inexpensive and easy tests haven’t been comprehensive enough to recognize an early-phase infection. We are developing a new method to find those structures in the HI virus that are essential for its reproduction.”
The method finds the so-called p24 proteins in the structure of the HI virus. These proteins can be used to recognize an infection at its early phase.
“The best way to stop a pandemic is to prevent it from spreading from human to human. Our method is significantly more inexpensive than the best in use. Therefore it’s also an effective way to recognize infections also in the poorer countries”, Partanen says.
Looking for an international partner
To be successful in the field of biotechnology, one must aim for world domination. Partanen himself travels regularly to international conferences, networking with the biggest players in the field. To help start up his own company, Partanen received funding from the Tekes’ TULI program in 2006. The funds provided by TULI was the groundstone for all the other funding. During the years, Next Biomed Technologies NBT has experienced strong growth and already employs a research team of over 10 persons.
“I used the TULI funding mostly to conduct an international market investigation. It was of significant help at a phase where no other funding was in sight. Without TULI I wouldn’t probably be here talking to you”, Partanen smiles.
After that the company has received growth funding from eg. The Foundation For Finnish Innovations, the University of Helsinki and Tekes. Without the support of them, the operations would’ve remained at a standstill.
The most important goal for Next Biomed now is to make a contract with a global corporation.
“The situation is very challenging. There are only a few of the kind of companies in the world that we would like to reach a contract with. We believe that a part of the money involved in global HIV diagnostics will reach us in the future. To achieve this, we need a strong international partner”, Partanen sums up.
