Progress through innovation
ACD Pharma is a Norwegian R&D company which develops pharmaceuticals, biocontrol products and health products. Our research team is co-located with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
ACD Pharma was originally established to develop fish health products for the aquaculture industry. However, groundbreaking results and the development of new technology from its work on bacteriophages have demonstrated how advances made in one sector can be extended in another.
In 2018, ACD Pharma launched Custus®YRS as the world’s first bacteriophage product for use in aquaculture. The preceding research efforts has provided a technological platform that can be used to develop bacteriophage products for combating bacteria harmful to both animals and people.
ACD Pharma currently collaborates with a number of pharmaceutical and scientific teams on utilising bacteriophages as tools in the fight against antibiotic resistance. The research is concentrated on strategies and methods for preventing and treating bacterial infections in people with the aid of bacteriophages.
Since 2019, ACD Pharma, the UiT Arctic University of Norway, the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN), Stavanger University Hospital, the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, the Karolinska Institute and a number of other international medical teams have been working together on the Kleb-Gap research project.
This aims to utilise bacteriophages against Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium which can cause pneumonia and hospital infections. Finding new defences against it has been identified as critical by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because of growing antibiotic resistance.
Our work directed towards the aquaculture sector remains an important business area for ACD Pharma, where several biocontrol products like Custus®YRS are being developed. These products are used to treat the production water during operations that typically lead to increased prevalence of bacteria in the water, thus increasing the chance of infections and later outbreaks of disease.
The Nordly Group
ACD Pharma is part of the Nordly Group, based at Leknes in the Lofoten islands.
- Nordly Holding is the holding company for ACD Pharma and several other companies:
- STIM delivers vaccines and fish health products to the aquaculture sector, as well as services related to veterinary fish health, the marine environment and technical certification for this industry. With several branch offices along the Norwegian coast, it is also established in Chile, the UK, Canada and Iceland.
- Polarfeed manufactures fish feed, with production facilities in Øksfjord in Finnmark county.
- Aquamed manufactures medicinal feed.
COO
Simon Brink
Brink is a graduate in economy from UCL in Denmark. He has 9 years of experience from international banking, he has been involved in the establishment of several large companies and holds several board positions. Brink was hired as COO of ACD Pharma in march 2021 too lead the company through commercialisation and the establishment of the company´s bacteriophage factory in Lofoten.
PhD, R&D operations manager
Cyril Frantzen
Frantzen studied bioengineering at the UiT Arctic University of Norway, and took an MSc and PhD in microbiology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His doctoral thesis covered the development and use of bioinformatics for analysing bacteria and bacteriophages. He joined ACD Pharma as a researcher after receiving his PhD, and has been R&D operations manager for the company since 2019.
MSc, senior engineer
Eirik Bårdsen
Bårdsen has been with ACD since graduating as a microbiologist in 2013. He is a “jack of all trades” in the laboratory, with the emphasis on testing new methods and isolating new bacteriophages.
Bårdsen holds an MSc in microbiology, having studied at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
MSc, research engineer
Ingrid Støtvig
Ingrid Støtvig joined the ACD Pharma research team in 2022. She has a Master´s of Science degree in biomedicine from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She is knowledgeable in molecular methods and applied medical genetics.
Senior Development Scientist
Øyvind Kileng
Kileng studied molecular biology at The University of Bergen and did his PhD at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on the interaction between the immune system in Atlantic salmon and the ISA virus. As a post doctor at Nofima he researched similar interactions between the immune system in Atlantic cod and the Nodavirus.
Hannah Winther Solbakk
Hannah has a Master´s of Science in biotechnology from The Nowrgeian University of Life Sciences and worked for Oslo University Hospital before joining ACD Pharma in december 2022. She is experienced in several molecular-biologic og biochemical methods.