Alvar Grönberg is Senior Program Director at CombiGene. He has a PhD from Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm and many years of experience from both academia and the international pharmaceutical industry, including senior positions at companies within Karolinska Development and Abliva AB. Alvar’s competencies include a deep knowledge of peptides, which makes him an ideal person to lead the pain program on the part of CombiGene.   

Genevägen contacted Alvar to hear how he views this major task and how he views the possibilities of the project. 

You have a doctoral thesis from KI and long experience from work in both academia and industry. What motivates you in your work?

“It is first and foremost to be involved in developing new drugs to treat severe diseases. Being involved in leading the development process in a drug program, planning studies, interpreting data, and experiencing successes is very stimulating. As everyone in the industry knows, you also suffer from setbacks and sometimes run into problems, but even that is motivating, especially when you despite the difficulties find a way forward. When it comes to drug development, the work often borders on research and scientific issues, which makes the work extra exciting and interesting.”

What experiences and knowledge will you benefit most from in your role as CombiGene’s Senior Program Director for the new pain program?

“It is all my previous experience of working with peptides and small molecules as well as my long experience of project management in drug development that I will benefit from. When it comes to the development of gene therapies, I am still learning, but here I will have a very good support and help from my competent and experienced colleagues.”

The pain program is being developed to offer effective pain relief without the side effects that today’s treatments often give rise to, which has been made possible thanks to Zyeneyro’s researchers identifying a new biological mechanism of action. What is your view on this aspect of the program?

“The new mechanism of action is very exciting and provides effective pain relief without visible side effects, especially the risk of addictiveness, in the preclinical models that have been used. In addition, the peptide-based drug candidate, and thus the mechanism of action, is subject to a special evaluation in an ongoing program, sponsored by the U.S. government, to ensure both efficacy and absence of risk of addiction. This is potentially a very important support in the development process.”

Are there other parts of the project that are particularly interesting from your perspective?

“Yes, the fact that the program consists of two parts. On the one hand, we will develop a peptide-based drug for repeated treatment that has the potential to reach a broad group of patients with temporary pain. Based on the same mechanism of action, we are also developing a gene therapy that is intended for a specific group of patients with very severe disabling chronic pain. Through gene therapy, you achieve a very long-lasting effect with only one treatment. The peptide-based drug will be ahead of the gene therapy in the development program and furthermore it could potentially be available to use as a test treatment to see if the gene therapy will work for a patient.”

One last question. How is your Danish?

”Jeg har nogle gange svært ved at forstå og jeg kan ikke snakke dansk, men det skal nok gå fint alligevel. We use English just to be safe!”