Background

In 1996 Pharm Assist Sweden AB was founded by the pharmacist and associate professor Mats Ehrnebo. Mats entrepreneurship actually started already in 1975 when he as very technology interested invested in systematization and programming of so-called microcomputers. The investment didn’t succeed very well though as probably the market wasn’t sufficiently mature.

Then a colleague of Mats, working at the hospital pharmacy in Gothenburg hinted about a pharmaceutical company that needed help preparing preclinical and clinical documentation for a clinical trial. This would be the perfect job for Mats, his colleague thought. Mats found this opportunity truly interesting and wrote a simple letter about his services which he sent out to all pharmaceutical companies in Sweden. It was an immediate success, this single mail gave Mats assignments for 2-3 years to come and Galenus AB, the forerunner of Pharm Assist, was founded.

Galenus AB was one of the very first CRO companies in Sweden and the company grew and flourished. In 1994, Mats received a bid from Innovex, a UK multi-national company with the similar profile. Innovex bought Galenus and Mats joined the new company together with 8 other consultants.

After 2 years in the new company group, Mats again felt that he wanted to create something completely on his own and he founded Pharm Assist Sweden AB in December 1996.

The new company was given a slightly different profile compared to Galenus and focus shifted from clinical trials to Regulatory Affairs, Drug Development and Medical Writing.  In these areas, Mats was very well acquainted with his sound background in pharmacokinetics and pharmaceutical biochemistry. The investment was successful and Pharm Assist has since then been growing steadily and new business areas such as pharmacovigilance have been added, as additional services have been requested and new skills recruited. Since 2012, Pharm Assist Sweden AB is owned by Pharm Assist Sweden Holding AB, which in turn is fully owned by the Ehrnebo family.