Börje Haraldsson – CEO at Oncorena

2023-11-22

In 2011, the pharmaceutical company Oncorena was founded with the mission to develop a breakthrough treatment for metastatic renal cancer. Börje Haraldsson was one of the four founders, and today he is the CEO of Oncorena.

- I strongly believe Oncorena has a novel, first in class, organ-specific, therapy with curative potential for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. In animals and in cell culture systems, ONC175 (synthetic orellanine) effectively eliminates cancer cells that are notoriously difficult to treat. Today, the disease is incurable for 80-90% of patients – that’s why I really wanted to be part of the Oncorena mission.

Börje was recruited to Oncorena in February 2022 – resulting in him and his wife packing their bags and returning to Sweden from Switzerland where they had lived for the last seven years. Börje is a MD with a PhD in Physiology and has had a clinical professorship in Nephrology at the University of Gothenburg, combined with a clinical role as senior consultant at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Through the years, he has held various leadership roles in academia and at the hospital. His research has received funding from the Swedish Research Council for 25 consecutive years. Prior to Oncorena, Börje worked at Novartis as Global Program Head.

- At Novartis, I led programs in nephrology, autoimmunity, and transplantation. I was lucky to meet brilliant specialists in various disciplines where I still have sufficient knowledge to appreciate, challenge and learn. It is such a pleasure to build work cultures based on trust, curiosity, and respect.

Now, as CEO for a small company, Börje’s role is to build a team that can utilize the shareholders’ investments efficiently to bring novel medicines to patients as soon as possible. This means that the new compounds must be tested in clinical trials to collect data. If the compound proves to be efficacious and safe, bring it to patients.

Börje looks forward to finding ways to stimulate the Oncorena team members to grow to their full potential, add more value to the company, and increase their probability of success. This, he believes, is how they successfully can bring ONC175 to patients in need.

- Oncorena has a defined Purpose – to help patients with metastatic renal cancer. The Vision is clear – ONC175 could be a curative therapy for these patients. The Strategy is to bring the therapy to patients as quickly as possible using the accelerated (conditional) approval pathway. The Ethical platform is essential, making patient safety our focus. Everyone in Oncorena needs to “begin with the end in mind” to effectively realize the Vision. Oncorena is up for a bright future and so, I hope, are the patients with renal cancer.