Collaboration is key in Health & Wellbeing, but too often a silo mentality sets in to discourage serious synergies. How do you turn competitors into colleagues and steer industry rivalries towards co-creation? – One answer may well be the Founding Pharma Partners initiative, launched by Health Capital Helsinki on 15 April 2026.
At the launch event, held at Terkko Health Hub in Helsinki, a number of key players from the local pharma community had assembled to celebrate the new initiative. Rauni Korolainen from Health Capital Helsinki set the stage for the new era of strategic collaboration: academia, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry need to come together in earnest.
“This is the first ever partnership model spearheaded by Health Capital Helsinki, looking to connect the right partners over shared challenges,” she said.
The “father” for the Founding Pharma Partners original idea is Daniel Lahti, External Affairs Director for American pharmaceutical powerhouse AbbVie. Lahti says that he came up with the idea last year, while thinking about ways to make Finnish pharma more appealing internationally. A united front – in form of a common initiative – is one way to make a bigger splash, also globally.
“High level collaboration is valuable, especially when it’s rooted in something regional and tangible – and that was something that was missing from the Helsinki area, to an extent,” Lahti stated.
Increase the momentum!
Rauni Korolainen and Daniel Lahti also pointed out that the new initiative should fit well with existing ones:
“The Founding Pharma Partners does not replace existing networks, it complements them,” said Korolainen.
Marjo Berglund, Chief Financial Officer from the University of Helsinki, is a big believer in the new initiative as well. She was glad to see “strong commitment” from the founding partners of the venture from the get-go:
“Progress is always a collaborative effort. This initiative can really deepen all-around collaboration.”
The launch event also featured a spotlight on high-impact collaboration projects where research, healthcare systems and industry are joining forces to address major health challenges.
Eye on obesity
One of these ventures was 360° Approach to Obesity which seeks to integrate science, business and society to tackle a global health challenge. Kirsi Pietiläinen, Professor of Clinical Metabolism from the University of Helsinki, noted that with as many as 1.2 million Finns dealing with weight issues, such tools as AI-assisted dietary coaching and innovative foods and strategies have a chance to make a real difference.
At the event, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim offered corporate perspectives into the matter. Maria Jussila from Eli Lilly pointed out that rooting decisions in real-world data and comprehensive insight provides new opportunities in obesity care.
“Still, access is where innovation succeeds or fails. We need scalable models to make it all work,” she said.
Dive into the data lake
Another presentation at the event showcased the 100K Cancers project which has unlocked insights from over 100,000 cancer patients. Risto Renkonen, Professor at the University of Helsinki, said that a massive data lake – which is at the project’s disposal – has made it possible to predict the future, so to speak.
“Using AI, we are able to get more than snapshots of the patient – we get the entire movie now,” Renkonen offered a comparison.
The problem with data, right now, is that it’s not always compatible with what companies and innovators want to do. Talking about the importance of promoting proactive and personalized care, Niilo Färkkilä from Finnish startup Switchpoint Bio said that companies need data that is “actionable”.
“We must be able to utilize Finnish data faster, in order to produce high value solutions for the market,” Färkkilä said.
Don’t settle for the ordinary
To close the event, a full panel discussed Finland’s role as a global leader in health innovation – how can strategic partnerships help the country reach even higher?
The panelists – Daniel Lahti joined by Santtu Von Bruun, Director of Innovation Ecosystems, University of Helsinki; Tero Saukkonen, Director, Novo Nordisk; and Annakaisa Tirronen, Medical Team Lead, Boehringer Ingelheim – agreed that more structured collaboration should yield solid results, but only if the ambition level is high, as well.
“You need clear goals in this type of collaboration or you just end up getting lost,” said Tero Saukkonen.
Annakaisa Tirronen pointed out that by investing enough resources and “making noise”, collaboration can really take off. “This means, however, that you can’t be too content with how things are – you have to take risks, too.”
Benchmarking the animal kingdom, Santtu Von Bruun added that happy pigs typically have big bellies.
“Happy pigs also run slow. But if you’re trying to do great things, you have to run fast.”
Contact:
Health Capital Helsinki Ecosystem Manager
rauni.korolainen@helsinki.fi
