Thomas Busch has taken over as Chairman of the Board at Swedish biotech company Hiloprobe AB at what he calls “an exciting time” for the thriving business.
“We are now ready to transition from a research company to actively marketing and selling our ColoNode biomarker test”, he says.
A lot is happening at HiloProbe right now. The company signed a collaboration agreement in May with major international molecular diagnostics concern Biocartis. In addition, the results of a clinical study carried out in collaboration with Umeå University and oncologists, pathologists and surgeons from eight Swedish hospitals are expected to be published in the next few months.
Now the company has a new Chairman of the Board. Thomas, who has worked in the life science industry for 35 years, was CEO and co-owner of Nordic Biolabs for 22 years and is now, among other roles, CEO of Redhot Diagnostics.
After sitting on HiloProbe AB’s board since 2018, he takes over the chairmanship from Ernst Westman.
“It is an honor to be given this role, and I will do my best to steer the company towards the goals we have set”, says Thomas.
“HiloProbe is at the tipping point of a breakthrough in sales given the excellent results we are expecting to publish from our clinical study. There is every reason to believe that the healthcare profession will view HiloProbe’s ColoNode test as a valuable tool for the treatment of colorectal cancer patients who have undergone surgery. We also expect our distributor contract with Biocartis, which covers a large number of European countries, to contribute to a steady development of sales.
Thomas explains that the founders have done an amazing job with the company, and that having Umeå Biotech Incubator involved to provide business support has been a huge advantage. The focus now, he says, is on building sales.
With his extensive experience in the life science industry, Thomas knows how difficult it is to go from a research idea to a commercially viable product and build sales, and that it takes both patience and persistence to successfully enter the market.
“There is a lot of buzz in the industry, so if a company this small is to be seen and heard you have to make sure you stand out. I am convinced that the results of the clinical study will give us that advantage”, says Thomas.