People

Maarit

Merla

Maarit Merla, MSc (Econ), eMBA, CBM, has worked in the life science sector for more than 22 years, including in an international diagnostics company, a biotechnology start-up and a global pharmaceutical group. Maarit joined the Finnish Drug Discovery Center in the beginning of 2024 as CEO. The center is a state-owned company with a special mission to drive successful drug discovery and development through scientific and business development support. Her most recent roles include Executive Director at Organon R&D Finland (2022-2023) and Head of Business Development at Forendo Pharma (2015-2021), where she held a key role in raising €9M new financing, in closing a significant big pharma collaboration deal and the process that led to the acquisition of Forendo by Organon in 2021. Merla currently chairs the Board of Directors of Finnish Bioindustries and has served as Board Member of Pharma Industry Finland and the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland.

Pekka

Kallio

Pekka Kallio, PhD, joined Finnish Drug Discovery Center as CSO in August 2024. He has 30 years of experience from sectors like academic research, pharma, biotech, and regulatory agency. During his tenure as Head of Oncology Research at Orion his organization delivered more than ten clinical candidates. These include Darolutamide (Nubeqa®) now marketed globally castration-resistant prostate cancer, as well as other innovative targeted treatments that are under clinical phase I-III development for solid tumors. During his tenure at FIMEA/EMA his duties included the review of clinical trial applications as well as providing scientific advice both at EMA and national level. He also assessed oncology marketing authorization applications for EMA. Pekka received Ph.D. from University of Helsinki and was a postdoctoral fellow at Karolinska Institute (Cell and Molecular Biology, Medical Nobel Institute). He is Associate Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at University of Helsinki.

Patrik

Holm

Patrik Holm is trained in chemistry and biotechnology and has acquired nearly 30 years of experience in Medicinal Chemistry and Antibody Engineering at organizations of different sizes (Astra Zeneca, Orion Pharma, Organon). Holding various scientist and lead roles, he has gained expertise in molecular aspects of Drug Discovery spanning from Target Discovery to early Development. He has worked on large number of target classes and indications. Achievements include 15 patents and significant contributions to clinical candidates that demonstrated target engagement in the CNS. Patrik’s broad expertise and experience are invaluable for drug discovery at FDDC.

Julia

Lindqvist

Julia Lindqvist has a PhD degree in Cell Biology from Åbo Akademi University where she focused on understanding mechanisms governing muscle development and cancer cell behavior. After her PhD, Julia moved to Orion Pharma for a position elucidating the mechanism of action of cancer therapies. She spent nearly 8 years at Orion, serving in both scientist and leader roles. In her previous role at Orion Pharma, Julia lead an oncology-focused research and drug discovery team responsible for evaluating novel drug target biology and mechanism of action of pharmaceutical compounds, setup of innovative screening assays, screening of compounds as well as in vitro and in vivo pharmacology studies. Particularly, Julia´s broad biology understanding and vast expertise in building novel strategies for target discovery, validation and screening, supports academic innovations and drug discovery project collaborations at the FDDC

Jyrki

Liljeroos

Jyrki Liljeroos has a MSc in Business and Administration from Uppsala University, Sweden and has more than 40 year expertise in the field of pharmaceuticals and Life science in Europe, USA and Japan. He has a deep understanding and experience from various leadership positions in the healthcare industry internationally. Jyrki has served 10 years as Corporate Officer at Santen Ltd, listed pharma company in Japan, Business Head Europe 10 years and CEO and President Santen Oy Finland 20 years. He has also been Chairman Pharma Industry Finland, Chairman in Board Partner’s Association and Business Advisor in several public and private hospitals.

Currently Jyrki works as a board professional. He is BOD Chairman in four legal companies and two foundations, and a board member in three companies and two foundations. He plays tennis and enjoys luxury time with nine grandchildren.

Liisa

Huhtala

Liisa Huhtala, Master of Laws, trained at the bench is working as a Senior Ministerial Advisor and a Head of Single Market and Business law unit in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Finland. The Unit is responsible among other things preparation of Finland’s Single Market policy and regulatory sectors like financial reporting, auditing  and corporate due diligence. Huhtala has worked in the Ministries in different positions since year 2000. She worked for more than six years in the preparation of IPR legislation, for example, representing Finland in the negotiations on the EU’s Unitary patent and the Unified Patent Court and in charge of the national implementation of the system. In 2007-2009, she worked at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU in Brussels.

Tuula

Helander

Tuula Helander, Deputy Director General, Biotechnology and Medicines unit, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Dr. Tuula Helander has have many years of experience in various fields and positions in the vast area of health care – from the academic research, hospital diagnostics and patient care, and management to steering and legislation. At the moment, Helander is the Director of the Biotechnology and Medicines Unit at the Dept. of Safety, Security and Health, at the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The unit handles issues pertaining to: pharmaceutical services, data protection, acquisition of vaccines, biotechnology and gene technology, medical research, medical devices etc. She is the EU Member State representative and co-chair with the EU Commission for the Declaration “Towards access to at least 1 million sequenced genomes in the EU”, and MS representative at the Sub-group on Cancer (Mission on Cancer; Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan). Previously she was Senior Adviser in Permanent Secretary’s Cabinet at the Ministry, responsibilities mostly related to Health Sector Growth Strategy and Personalized Medicine. She made her PhD thesis at the Dept. of Pathology at the University of Helsinki, and the main results were published in Nature (Helander et al. 1996), and was awarded by National Medix Prize. She has been Director of Southern Cancer Center at the Helsinki University Hospital, Development Manager at the Helsinki University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Geneticist at the Helsinki University Women’s Hospital (at the Prenatal Diagnostic unit, and the Reproductive Medicine Unit). In addition, she was the Secretary General of Finnish Cancer Institute for over 20 years.

Terhi

Horppu

Chief Financial Officer, MSc (Econ)

Terhi Horppu, MSc (Econ) works as the Chief Financial Officer in Blueprint Genetics Oy. Terhi has vast experience from pharmaceutical and software industries where she has held many leadership positions. Before returning to pharmaceutical industry she worked as the CFO for Microsoft Sweden and Microsoft Finland. Earlier she worked at GlaxoSmithKline´s London headquarters within product strategy unit for global product launches. Terhi transitioned to London from the CFO role for GlaxosmithKline´s operations in Finland. She also has experience from Fortum and Hewlett Packard from different finance roles.

Terhi is passionate about enabling and supporting growth for start-up and scale-up companies in Finland. 

During her free time Terhi loves to spend time outdoors with Jack Russell Martta.

Anne

Portaankorva

Anne Portaankorva is professor of neurology, MD. Currently she is vice-rector at the University of Helsinki responsible for research and sustainable development.

She has over 20 experiences in clinical and translational research on dementing diseases, especially early onset dementia and frontotemporal dementia. Prof. Portaankorva possesses a profound understanding of leadership, having completed an executive MBA program. Before nominating as vice-rector she has served as the dean of the faculty of medicine at the university of Oulu and university of Helsinki. She has act in different kind of roles in all the main action points of the Finnish Health Sector Growth Strategy for Research and Innovation Activities. She has been acting as a member of the steering groups of Comprehensive Cancer Center Finland (FICAN) and Neurocenter Finland and board of the Finnish Biobank Cooperative (FINBB).

 She is board member of the Executive of the Joint Authority for Helsinki and Uusimaa of the Helsinki University Hospital (HUCH) and board member of the Clinical Research Institute HUCH, member of LERU research policy group and UNA Europa Research Strategy Group. She acts as the president of Union Council of The Alzheimer Society of Finland. 

Ilpo

Tolonen

Ilpo Tolonen joined Docrates Cancer Center in Helsinki in May 2017 as the CEO. He has several board positions in various companies and associations in a field of healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. 

He has an experience of 25 years in international pharmaceutical industry. He joined MSD (Merck & Co., Inc. in the US and Canada) in Finland in 1991 and hold several roles in marketing and sales in Finland and at the HQ in USA. Since 2006 Ilpo was responsible for MSD in Finland as a Managing Director and since 2011 for both Finland and Baltics. 

llpo Tolonen is keen on to enhance foreign investments to Finland and in helping Finnish companies going out for foreign markets. He is known as an active spokesman for innovative pharma and private healthcare providers in Finland. 

Jukka

Westermarck

Jukka Westermarck, MD PhD, is a professor of cancer biology at university of Turku, and research director at Turku Bioscience Centre. Jukka has 30-year experience in cancer research working in different high profile research institutions both in Finland and abroad. He has led research group focusing on cancer cell signaling for the past 20 years resulting in some groundbreaking discoveries related to tumor suppressor mechanisms in cancer and their impact of cancer cell drug resistance. This work has also resulted in number of international patents and out licencing of drug development related discoveries to pharma. Jukka is also a co-founder of the cancer diagnostics start-up company Thestra Ltd. Jukka was one of the key persons spearheading establishment of the Finnish Drug Development Center. Jukka has served as a member of numerous advisory boards and working groups, is a board member of the European Association for Cancer Research, and an elected member of Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Tarja

Enala

Tarja Enala, MSc.(Biochem), has over 25 years of experience in life sciences, including expert and managing positions in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology startups, technology transfer, international diagnostics, and government organizations. She has driven growth in R&D, business development, marketing, and sales. For 16 years, she was i.a. Life Science Director at technology transfer companies linked to Finnish universities. From 2012 to 2019, she held management positions at PerkinElmer. From 2019 to 2023, she was Acting Head of Industry and Senior Advisor, Health & Wellbeing at Business Finland, driving health-related foreign direct investments into Finland and fostering university-company ecosystems. The last years Enala has worked as Chief Specialist in Innovations and Enterprise Financing at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, responsible for establishing and launching the Finnish Drug Discovery Center Ltd. Today she works as Head of Health 360 Finland Program at Business Finland and continues work in the National Health Sector Growth Program steering group.