STORY / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Norway is driving major medical breakthroughs
- Published 8 March 2023; updated 25 March 2026; estimated reading time 4 minutes. The article surveys four Norwegian medical innovations and frames them as the result of research at laboratories, universities and university hospitals. Its market and clinical claims reflect the page’s publication context and should be read as attributed historical information.
- SERO: In the 1950s, Professor Lorentz Eldjarn at Rikshospitalet (now Oslo University Hospital) demonstrated standardised control serum for laboratory quality control. The article says SERO was founded 13 years later and launched Seronorm, described as the first commercially available control serum. SERO continues to supply standard and customised diagnostic quality-control materials. The article cites a forecast that the global IVD quality-control market would reach USD 2.28 billion by 2031, growing 4.5% annually from 2024 to 2031.
- Algeta: Building on Radium Hospital research, the company developed a radium-223 drug for prostate cancer that has spread to bone. Initially called Alpharadin and later Xofigo, the targeted treatment was designed for precise delivery and a short half-life. Bayer acquired Algeta (founded 1997) in 2011; the page says production and R&D remained in Norway and related treatment methods were being explored for breast and lung cancers. The article’s incidence and death counts are undated page figures.
- Dynal Biotech: In 1977, NTNU professor John Ugelstad created uniform microscopic beads and made them magnetic, enabling precise separation of biological material. Dynal commercialised these as Dynabeads. The article says they are used for cancer-genome sequencing, cancer-cell isolation, DNA extraction, tissue typing for transplantation and HIV research, and that manufacturing remains in Lillestrøm. It cites use in 80% of cancer genome sequencing in Europe; this is a page-stated figure, not independently verified here.
- GE Vingmed Ultrasound: NTNU professor Bjørn Angelsen’s Pulsed Echo Doppler Flowmeter estimated blood-flow speed and direction; cardiologist Liv Hatle developed clinical methods and Vingmed commercialised the device. GE acquired the company in 1998. The article also describes GE Vingmed’s 2009 Vscan pocket-sized colour ultrasound and the wireless Vscan Air launched in 2021, which streams ultrasound images to a smartphone.
- Related links: SERO quality-control solution, Algeta/Xofigo, the Dynabeads supplier, the Liv Hatle and Bjørn Angelsen articles, Vingmed’s commercialisation history and the Health and life science industry page. No direct contact block is shown.