The Swedish capital was a “natural choice” due to a shared dedication to innovation, according to Mattias Bankel, General Manager for Sweden at Moderna Therapeutics.
“Moderna was recently ranked number six in the world when it comes to innovation and the company is well aware that Sweden also ranks highly for innovation, so there will be strong opportunities for collaboration on many levels,” he said.
In an interview with The Local, Bankel named artificial intelligence (AI) as one potential area for collaboration as Moderna looks to save lives by speeding up the approval process for new drugs. He praised Stockholm’s “very strong research foundation”.
“We’re not big pharma and we don’t intend to be big pharma,” Bankel stated. “We do things in a new way, a more exciting way, and try to utilise technology in everything we do, so we can move even faster.”
Why Stockholm?
Moderna is expanding globally. The company has already opened offices in a number of major European countries and its worldwide headcount has grown from around 750 in late 2019 to more than 6,000.
While Bankel was coy about the exact number of positions to be filled in Sweden, he will oversee a “decent-sized” operation as Stockholm becomes Moderna’s central hub for the Nordic region.
“Innovation, entrepreneurship, the level of competence and education in Stockholm, all made it a natural choice,” he said. “I recently went to Boston, where we have our headquarters. If you can [re-]create the synergies you have there with the climate of entrepreneurship and innovation, I think that will be supportive of all life science companies. And I think that’s why Moderna chose to have the hub in Stockholm – it fits with the way we want to do business.”
Bankel said Sweden is well-recognised internationally for research at Karolinska Institutet (the Karolinska Institute in English) and KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology), both in Stockholm. Moderna has a strong history of collaboration with the former.
“I think there’s an institutional memory in Moderna that the company has collaborated a lot with Karolinska Institutet, which is a respected institution across the world,” he added. “We’re always open to collaborations and if there are interesting ideas to utilise in AI product development, for example, or in collecting data on real-world evidence, it’s certainly something we’d be happy to look into.”
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Scaling up fast
Moderna, formed only in 2010, made headlines for the speed with which it produced billions of doses of its Covid-19 mRNA vaccine. Today, it’s developing treatments for everything from cancer to cardiovascular disease, as well as a variety of vaccines.
“At the end of 2019, we had one product in the pipeline,” said Bankel. “We now have 48 and 35 of them are in clinical trials, which really tells you the speed that we’re working at.”
The ability to innovate and scale up fast is also closely associated with successful digital start-ups founded in Stockholm, such as Spotify and Klarna.
As an “early adopter” of AI, Moderna is now seeking to push the potential benefits through to people in need, said Bankel. “If AI can help us shorten the time it takes to get drugs to market that will benefit patients worldwide.”
The company is also investing heavily in tackling “under-represented” tropical diseases, and has begun building a factory in Kenya “that might supply up to 500m doses for the African continent within a few years.”
Jobs at Moderna: fast-paced – and fine to speak English
Moderna will be recruiting in Sweden in the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024. Bankel said the company is “very diverse” and positions will be open to English speakers, but emphasised that a distinctive mindset is essential.
“I think there’s every opportunity regardless of where you come from, what your education is or your background; if you’re a good fit culturally, that’s the key thing for us,” he said.
“Our CEO famously says from time to time that Moderna isn’t for everybody. It’s a very fast-paced environment. We say ‘pivot fearlessly’. If something doesn’t work, we just stop doing it and do something else.
“We don’t have to be the smartest but we have to be the fastest learners. You’re expected to manage your own learning. You’re allowed to make mistakes but you need to act on stuff that happens in your surroundings and make decisions. You don’t get a clear job description. Everybody needs to do what needs to be done, not what’s written down for them.”
Asked which skills will be required, he mentioned collaborations in research and at governmental level, tenders, and expertise in digital communication.
“I would encourage people to look us up, look at whether Moderna speaks to you, follow us on LinkedIn and we will post all positions there openly.”
If your Swedish skills are not yet up to scratch that won’t hold you back. “English is fine. As we have a Nordic team in place, we switch back and forth between the Nordic languages and English anyway.”
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Towards a thriving future in Stockholm
Since taking up his post a few weeks ago, Bankel has focused on developing relationships with government officials and key stakeholders in healthcare in the regions. The “starting point” is to support Sweden’s readiness for the next Covid-19 season, he said.
Beyond that, Moderna will look for suitable collaborations in Sweden in areas such as research in vaccines and mRNA, as well as AI.
Could manufacturing in Sweden be a future possibility? “Sweden is an attractive location for both R&D and manufacturing sites,” Bankel said. “For sure, it’s on the table for the future and we’re interested in exploring that with stakeholders in Sweden.”
He’s also looking forward to developing the company’s new relationship with Invest Stockholm, the city’s official business agency. “They’ve been very open in wanting to help make sure we’re thriving in Stockholm and they’ve been extremely welcoming,” he said.
With so many possibilities ahead, Stockholm’s status as a leading international innovation hub could soon be boosted to even greater heights.
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