Dilafor AB is based on Professor Gunvor Ekman-Ordeberg’s clinical findings that pregnant women treated with Fragmin™, a low molecular-weight heparin compound, had significantly shorter labor with fewer complications than controls.
 
Following contact with Karolinska Institutet Innovations (KIAB), the company was founded in early 2003. By the end of that year, a new heparin compound (DF01) had been developed and produced in GLP laboratories. In 2004 it was already in large-scale GMP production, both in the region’s Biotech Valley. Safety/toxicological documentation was compiled in 2005 and the results of Phase I clinical testing were reported in 2006. Phase II trials began in March 2007. Documentation of the second compound in Dilafor, DF02 (intended to treat severe malaria), is already under way. Toxicology studies are finalized and Phase I trials will be initiated early 2009.

Record-fast development

Taking a drug candidate through all these steps is a complex procedure, involving expertise from various areas. Dilafor decided to actively use all networks available to make the journey as efficient as possible.
 
– Well-functioning networks were vital to our success. With few exceptions, we could find all the expertise we wanted in the region, says Tore Mellstrand, board member and one of Dilafor’s founders.
 
– From concept to Phase II trials in so few years. This wouldn’t have been possible without the start-up investment from KIAB and the later long-term ownership and support from Karolinska Development, adds Anders Åsell, CEO at Dilafor.