Michael Engsig, CEO, Nykode Therapeutics about NLSDays’ Vaccine Crosslinks: From Cancer to COVID super session

Text: Chelsea Ranger, Senior advisor, SwedenBIO

Norway is certainly proud of Nykode—formerly Vaccibody—and the company’s journey has been exciting.

Can you share a bit about the journey to the Nykode of today and what we can expect moving forward?
Indeed, it has been an exciting journey for Nykode over the last couple of years. We are currently in the middle of a transformative journey, evolving from a small biotech company focused on just two assets into a full-fledged technology platform biotech, entirely dedicated to exploiting our unique immunotherapy platform. It’s a long and intensive path requiring a lot of hard work, but it also brings very rewarding moments—especially when we see that our work could truly make a meaningful difference for patients down the road.
Our intention moving forward is to maintain a dual focus: first, on advancing our programs through the development phases and bringing them closer to patients, and second, on continuously improving our platform to create even better next-generation products. This could also mean expanding into additional therapeutic areas.

This year’s NLSDays is focused on “Powering-up Through Partnerships.” Nykode is certainly aligned with this, and your company has stated that partnering is the catalyst for innovation and the foundation for commercial success. Can you tell us about this?
The third key element in our strategy—alongside project progress and platform improvements—is accelerating the development of the company, our projects, and our technology through partnerships. We strongly believe in the power of partnerships to complement our own core strengths, whether by bringing in additional expertise, resources, or financial support.

Each of our three major partnerships has played a crucial role in accelerating our strategy, and partnerships will remain a pivotal element in our approach as we continue to determine what to collaborate on and with whom. Beyond the tangible objectives of our partnerships, we’ve also realized that simply engaging in collaborations with external partners helps us grow our internal organizational competencies. So, we are big believers in leveraging synergies through partnerships.

What advice would you offer the many startup teams that now look to Nykode as a role model?
Stay curious and open-minded. Many of the partnerships we have today-both traditional collaborations and relationships with vendors and service providers—originated at events like these. My advice to early-stage companies is to meet as many people as possible and remain open to conversations.

Every interaction holds the potential for a future partnership—whether it happens tomorrow, next year, or five years down the line. And beyond partnerships, every conversation is an opportunity to gain new insights, even if it’s just a small piece of valuable information.