Maas BiolAB brings Hawaii to Swedish Biomedical Forum
Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers
HONOLULU--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 1, 1999--Maas BiolAB
LLC was chosen to represent Hawaii at the first "CONNECT Sweden BioMedical
Partnership Forum" in Goteborg on 1-2 November 1999. The CONNECT
Forum offers selected, primarily Scandinavian, emerging innovative biomedical
companies to present their technology to international and Scandinavian
pharmaceutical and biomedical companies, including Pharmacia-Upjohn, Astra-Zeneca,
NeuroSearch, and venture capital firms.
The CONNECT Forum is held north of the Scandinavian "Medicon Valley"
called Oresund. It was dubbed Medicon Valley when its universities spawned
many innovative biotechnology corporations. Oresund is the name of the
narrow body of water between Denmark and Sweden separating the Universities
of Copenhagen and Lund.
Maas BiolAB, LLC is a privately held biotechnology company incorporated
in Hawaii in 1997. It is a member of the Hawaii Technology Trade Association.
Maas BiolAB, LLC holds patents for the use of cyclosporin, the original
neuroimmunophilin, to treat acute neurological diseases including stroke,
brain trauma, spinal cord injury and status epilepticus as well as chronic
neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's
and ALS.
Eskil Elmer Ph. D., Maas Scientific Director will present the company
and also showcase Hawaii as the "Biotech Island" at the Swedish
meeting. "The Forum is an ideal venue to reach the key decision makers
of some of our target corporations. It is the first Small Biotech/Big
Pharma forum in Sweden. Our intellectual property was created in Sweden,
and brought to Hawaii. CONNECT takes us back to Sweden to develop alliances
with Scandinavian and European corporations. The next step should bring
an improved proprietary cyclosporin formulation to clinical trials."
Maas CEO Marcus Keep, M.D reports "In addition to bringing pharmaceutical
partners of our own back to Hawaii, we hope to encourage other Swedish
biotechs to set up their American division in Hawaii instead of New Jersey
or California."
"The timing is good for Maas participation in CONNECT." said
Helmuth von Moltke, Maas Corporate Director. "With our receiving
the USA patent only 6 days before the forum, there is increased international
attention on cyclosporin as THE neuroprotectant. Cyclosporin will likely
be the very first clinical drug to actually be effective in humans with
stroke, of which there are over 700 000 a year in the USA alone."
