Niclas Nilsson's Biography

Niclas Nilsson, Open Innovation Manager, LEO Pharma

Niclas Nilsson is heading an initiative to use Open Innovation at the early stages of drug research with a maintained focus on science and external collaborations at LEO Pharma, a pharmaceutical company in Denmark focusing on dermatology and inflammatory skin disease. With a background of heading the in vitro pharmacology at LEO Pharma a natural extension of developing disease-relevant in vitro assay, was to explore the possibilities of using such assays for Open Innovation. The initiative of allowing external open access to disease-relevant in vitro assays is just recently launched officially. Niclas holds two degrees from Lund University in Sweden, PhD in Medical Sciences and MSc in Molecular Genetics, with a focus on assay technologies and drug discovery. Main work within this area has been Hit and Lead finding through high throughput screening, Lead Optimization with SAR (Structure Activity Relationship) data, phenotypic assays and increased translational efficacy predictions and patient-related in vitro assays. Current role as Open Innovation Manager focuses on strategic development and implementation of open innovation platform to catalyze external collaborations and boost the drug research pipeline.