Per Lindberg

Precision health is the future

Per Lindberg, an associate professor in organic chemistry and medicinal chemist, has had a remarkably interesting life journey filled with exceptional and extensive expertise in research, drug development, and patent knowledge.

His doctoral thesis at Lund University focused on natural product chemistry and fungi, leading to a drug project with Astra, involving Professor and Nobel laureate Arvid Carlsson and his chemistry lab where Per's career began with molecular design and synthesis of new molecules that evolved into well-known pharmacological tools.

This led to new inventions patented under Astra's auspices, and the collaboration with Astra's patent engineers marked the beginning of Per's patent education and the realization of the importance of holistic testing, in vivo (on animals), rather than in vitro (in test tubes). This holistic approach has since characterized Per's entire career.

"In recent years, I have undergone a personal journey from a holistic perspective on drug research to now almost fully embracing a holistic approach to healthcare."

- Per Lindberg

1977

Per Lindberg graduated in Organic Chemistry from the University of Technology in Lund, Sweden in 1977 and was appointed Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at The Chalmers Institute of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden in 1982. Between 1976 and 1982 he worked with Professor Arvid Carlsson (Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine, 2000), Department of Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg, leading his Medicinal Chemistry Unit.

He is author of about 50 publications in medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry and pharmacology, and owns about 35 inventorships, including being the ‘main inventor’ of Nexium®. He received the ‘Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Prize in Medicinal Chemistry in 2006.

1982 - 1993

He joined Hässle AB (today AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal, Sweden) in 1982 as Head of Medicinal Chemistry Gastrointestinal (GI) and held this position until 1993. He was a member of the GI Management Team. Among the large number of projects at this time, the most important one was the development of the first proton pump inhibitor Losec®/Prilosec® (omeprazole) and elucidation of its mechanism of action. The omeprazole project continued in the omeprazole follow-up project, which ended up with the development of Nexium® (esomeprazole).

1993 – 1998

From 1993–1998 he was Director of the Preclinical Alliances Group at AstraHässle, a job that involved evaluating and negotiating both early and late stage external opportunities. This involved in-depth analyses of both scientific and IP matters and communication with external and internal scientists, patent attorneys, lawyers and managements.

1998 - 2002

In 1998, as one of the most experienced researchers in the area of Losec®/Prilosec®, he was drafted, as a full time Advisor, for about 4 years, into the Scientific Patent Support Team for the worldwide Losec®/Prilosec® litigation. He was also deposed in the US litigation as an inventor and as a company witness. He had a leading position for Patent Strategy of both Losec®/Prilosec® and Nexium® by chairing the “Patent Management Team-Losec/Nexium“, attended by medicinal chemists, pharmacists, production chemists and several patent attorneys. As main inventor of Nexium, he was also deposed in the Nexium US litigation. He was also leading the scientific part of a Regulatory Defense Team activity concerning Prilosec® /FDA, which activity was a close collaboration between a US-based CRO and internal specialist scientists and internal and external lawyers.

2002

Since 2002 he was Senior Scientific Advisor, Gastrointestinal and Cardiovascular Therapy Area, mainly initiating late in-licensing activities. In this position he was also instrumental in driving changes and improvements of (1) the global AstraZeneca Patent Filing Strategy, and (2) how the scientists, mainly the medicinal chemists, should take the lead in the Project Patent Strategy work.

2012

He retired from AstraZeneca in March 2012. Since then he has been an independent patent and scientific consultant in Per Lindberg Consulting AB. Besides his consultancy in giving patent strategy advice, he has been engaged as Medicinal Chemistry Expert and Expert Witness in a couple of patent prosecution and litigation cases.

Since 2012, he has supported numerous small pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers with their patent strategies. Among these was Isofol Medical AB in Gothenburg, for which he authored the foundational manuscript of an overview article titled: "Folates as Adjuvants to Anticancer Agents: Chemical Rationale and Mechanism of Action" (P. Danenberg et al., Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, 2016). He initially took responsibility for chemistry-related matters and gradually assumed responsibility for the company's overall patent strategy.

2012 - 2014

During 2012 and 2014, he investigated the reasons behind the dramatic decline in productivity within the global pharmaceutical industry. Since the early 1990s, the field of molecular pharmacology had dominated, and during this period, the industry primarily focused on single-target drug development strategies. This shift led to the abandonment of more traditional and reliable holistic pharmaceutical research methods, such as in vivo screening of novel chemical compounds. The prevailing belief was that by simply identifying a compound with high affinity for a single target protein—such as an enzyme or receptor—it would be easier to develop a drug for a specific disease. However, this approach ultimately proved to be a disaster for the industry. Even today, much of the pharmaceutical sector remains trapped in this deeply flawed strategy.

2016 - 2024

During this entire period, Per Lindberg held a "full-time consultancy" position at Isofol Medical AB in Gothenburg. His primary responsibility was overseeing the patent strategy, but he was also involved in chemistry and biochemistry. Strengthening Isofol’s patent protection for its main product, arfolitixorin, was a key priority. With his strong connection to the scientific aspects of research (as opposed to the legal aspects of patents), he brought unique expertise to patent filing strategy, including application, prosecution, and even litigation.

Driven by the fundamental idea that patenting should always be guided by the scientific perspective, rather than the legal one, Per Lindberg successfully established and led a global patent network. This network included European and US attorneys, as well as representatives from Merck & Cie, the compound producer.

His unique blend of expertise in both patents and science enabled him, and by extension Isofol, to engage in patent discussions with attorneys worldwide at an equally high level of competence. This created a rare and ideal situation for a small company, where unbiased patent strategic decisions could be made internally, rather than being driven by a potentially biased law firm. In addition to his patent work, a significant amount of time was dedicated to addressing chemical and biochemical questions, with a particular focus on writing about pharmacological mechanisms of action.

(Sources: 1. Nasri et al., 2014; 2. Danenberg, 2016; 3-4. KemiVärlden, Per Lindberg, 2012 and 2014)