Presented in Upgraded Life Festival 31.5.2016 by Heikki Joensuu, Helsinki University Hospital. http://www.upgradedlifefestival.com/

1. SPARK in the Valley of Death
Heikki Joensuu
Comprehensive Cancer Center Helsinki, Helsinki University Hospital,
and University of Helsinki

2. • 90 Nobel laureates
• Endowments 7.7 billion € in 2014
University of
Cambridge
Charles Darwin Stephen Hawkins Isaac Newton

3. Stanford faculty and alumni:
• Founded companies including Google, Hewlett-Packard,
Nike, Sun Microsystems, Instagram and Yahoo!
• The companies founded generate >$2.7 trillion in annual
revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the
world
• 30 living billionaires
• 17 astronauts
• 60 Nobel Prize laureates
Stanford
University

4. Can we one day have a similar world-class
top university in Finland?
We would need
• The top people
• The top research
• Good funding and resources
…and these may be linked

5. Creating a positive cycle for financing
• Developing of inventions to products locally, new companies
• Collaboration and partnership with industry
• Meeting forums for academic investigators and investors

6. An example: A new drug for a
relatively rare type of cancer
(GIST)

7. Gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST)
• May be the most common type of soft tissue sarcoma
• Incidence about 10 cases/million/year
• Variable malignancy potential
• Some GISTs are virtually benign, others are aggressive
cancers
• Risk stratification schemes therefore needed
• Local GISTs are treated with surgery
• Imatinib (a targeted drug for GIST and one type of
leukemia) is given after surgery for 3 years when the
risk of recurrence is considered high
Imatinib annual sales in 2015: 4.65 billion dollars

8. Treatment of advanced GIST
• The first-line treatment has been imatinib since 20021,2
• Most GISTs eventually develop acquired drug resistance (appr. 80%
within 10 years)
• The approved second-line agent (sunitinib) and third-line agent
(regorafenib) have only moderate efficacy with the time to
progression about 6 months
• Novel agents needed!
1Joensuu et al. NEJM 2001; 2Demetri et al. NEJM 2002

9. 0
20
40
60
80
100
Alivewithoutrecurrence(%)
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time since imatinib initiation
Years
Successive GIST patients with metastatic disease treated in
Helsinki since the year 2000
Median time to progression 3.0 years
Median overall survival 6 years
Appr. 25% survive for 10 years or longer
40%
26%
21%

12. The next steps
• An international patent application has been filed
• A new company, Sartar Therapeutics Ltd., was founded to advance
the development of the new inhibitor
• Plans to develop a new formulation of the drug
• A Phase I/II clinical trial in the treatment of imatinib-refractory GIST is
being planned

13. What is SPARK?
• SPARK program founded in 2007 at Stanford university
• SPARK is a partnership between university and industry
-Purpose: to provide the education and mentorship to advance
research discoveries from the bench to the bedside
• Mentoring is provided by advisors with expertise in
-Product development
-Clinical care
-Business
Pasi Sorvisto, Helsinki Health Capital

14. How SPARK works
• Courses about the drug development process
• Funding: SPARK Scholars are funded for an average of 2 years
• Mentoring: Weekly seminars with industry and academic experts
• Advicing: Access to core facilities, assistance in creating partnerships
with industry

15. SPARK project selection criteria
• Product proposal reviews annually by experts
• The proposed therapy or diagnostic must:
• Address an unmet need
• Utilize a novel approach
• Have the potential to advance to clinic or commercialization with 2
years of funding

16. Example no: 2: Making a world-class tool to estimate GIST
patient outcome and the need for imatinib after surgery
1) All population-based GIST series were first identified from the literature1-9
Site Time period N
Western Sweden 1983-2000 231
Modena, Italy 1991-2004 157
Iceland 1990-2003 50
Northern Norway 1974-2003 457
Poland 2002-2009 582
Osaka, Japan 1987-2003 543
Southern Switzerland 1999-2005 78
Ancona, Italy 1987-2006 72
Czech/Slovak Republic 2001-2009 715
~2,500 patients
1Nilsson B et al. Cancer 2005;103:821-9, 2Mucciarini C et al. 2007;7:230, 3Tryggvason G et al. Dig Dis Sci 2007;52:2249-53, 4Steigen SE et al. APMIS
2007;115:289-98, 5Rutkowski P et al. Ann Surg Oncol 2007;14:2018-27, 6Takahashi T et al. Int J Clin Oncol 2007;12:369-74, 7Mazzola P et al. Histol
Histopathol 2008;23:1379-86, 8Braconi C et al. Ann Oncol 2008;19:706-10, 9Brabec P et al. Neoplasma 2009;56:459-64.
2) The best mathematics available (non-linear statistics) were applied to the
pooled world data (adj. prof. Aki Vehtari, Aalto University)

17. 100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Years since surgery
Survival 10-year risk of recurrence: 10%
3) A simple web-based platform for the user

18. 100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Years since surgery
Survival 10-year risk of recurrence: 86%

19. Can we one day have a similar world top
university as Cambridge or Stanford in
Finland?
Of course!
We will need to create the positive cycle
• to secure good funding and resources
• this is likely to attract the best people
• …who will carry out top research