Gedea Biotech named Rapidus Company of the Year
SmiLe Venture Hub – Pioneering Life Science Innovations
SmiLe’s alumnus company Gedea Biotech has been named Rapidus Company of the Year by a prominent jury along with the Rapidus news agency, which monitors the strong growth industries in Skåne County and the Copenhagen area.
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Birgit Janicke and Annette Säfholm from Gedea Biotech and Ebba Fåhraeus from SmiLe Incubator. Photo: Kristoffer Lindblad.

Lund, Sweden: SmiLe’s alumnus company Gedea Biotech has been named Rapidus Company of the Year by a prominent jury along with the Rapidus news agency, which monitors the strong growth industries in Skåne County and the Copenhagen area. The company ranked highest in strong competition with all of Skåne’s future hopefuls in fields ranging from technology to pharmaceuticals. Many highly successful companies have previously garnered this honor, including QlikTech and CellaVision.

Femtech-company Gedea Biotech expects that within one year, it will have a commercial product for women who suffer from vaginal infections. The patented product, which is antibiotics-free and natural, will be used both to cure and prevent bacterial and fungal infections. It has shown striking results in the first clinical trial and is expected to meet a great need in the market.

The acclaimed company has been awarded several Swedish and European designations and grants, most recently a grant from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research along with Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. The company was also recently ranked by Labiotech as one of the Top 20 European biotech companies to watch in 2022.

“We are thrilled and honored to now belong to such a celebrated group of companies that Rapidus has chosen for more than 20 years. We have an incredibly exciting year ahead of us as we await the results of our most recent clinical trials, while engaging in partner discussions to commercialize the product. The expanded network that we’ve gained access to through SmiLe has been invaluable in the development of the company, as has been having the support of our own personal SmiLe coach, who knows everything about the company,” says Annette Säfholm.

“Gedea Biotech is developing a product that is in great demand and is an excellent choice as the best innovative company of the year in the region. Given Annette’s professional management of the company and that on many occasions, Rapidus has identified companies that became enormously successful within a few years, I look forward with great excitement to see what will happen over the next few years,” says Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator.

For more information, please contact: Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator, +46 (0)73 4000433, ebba@smileincubator.life

Jury’s explanation: Gedea Biotech has been named Rapidus Company of the Year because this persevering company, based on the findings of highly qualified researchers and despite the pandemic and its consequences, has stubbornly persisted and appears to be doing almost everything right. We suspect that strong suitors are already waiting in line as potential buyers. This harmless jumping spider is building its future success on genuine sustainability and, at its final product breakthrough, will have an enormous market. Perhaps half of the population on earth?

Jury: The jury judging the most promising companies in the region consists of Charlotte Ahlgren Moritz, Pro-vice-chancellor of Malmö University, Lennart Gustafsson, the former regional manager of Industrifonden and Jan Wifstrand from Rapidus and the former editor-in-chief of other major newspapers.

Assessment criteria: The criteria that are assessed include the idea with the greatest potential, innovative power and financial platform.