ADLEGO BIOMEDICAL AB

Their core work

Adlego Biomedical is a Swedish biomedical SME based in Uppsala — Sweden's primary life sciences hub — specializing in preclinical antiviral and vaccine research. Their work centers on testing therapeutic candidates against coronaviruses in animal models, with documented use of macaque (non-human primate) viral challenge systems and pseudotype virus assays. In both EU projects they contributed to the preclinical pipeline: establishing infection models, evaluating broad-spectrum antiviral compounds, and supporting early-stage vaccine platforms. Their role sits at the interface of virology and translational medicine — turning laboratory findings into actionable preclinical evidence packages.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both projects launched in 2020, so the evolution here is thematic rather than chronological: the earlier project (Fight-nCoV, 2020–2022) was centered on antiviral mechanism and animal model validation — establishing that infection could be reliably modeled and measured. The later project (OPENCORONA, 2020–2024) shifted toward vaccine platforms and therapy development, suggesting Adlego moved from model-building to supporting candidate evaluation. The trajectory is from preclinical infrastructure toward translational application — a natural progression in pandemic-driven R&D.

Adlego appears to be building a preclinical services profile in infectious disease — starting from model establishment and moving toward supporting multi-modal therapeutic development, which positions them as a specialist CRO-adjacent partner for future pandemic preparedness or antiviral consortia.

How they like to work

Adlego has participated exclusively as a consortium partner — never as coordinator — across both projects, suggesting they contribute a defined technical capability rather than driving research direction. Their network is compact: 11 partners across 5 countries from just 2 projects, which implies they join focused, mission-specific consortia rather than broad thematic networks. This is consistent with an SME that offers a specialist preclinical service (animal models, assay systems) to research-led consortia.

Adlego has worked with 11 unique partners across 5 countries, a reasonable network for a two-project SME. Their collaborations are concentrated in the EU health research space, consistent with Uppsala's strong biomedical ecosystem and Sweden's active role in pandemic preparedness research.

What sets them apart

Adlego operates in Uppsala, co-located with major academic medical infrastructure (Uppsala University, SciLifeLab) and with proximity to AstraZeneca's Swedish operations — giving them access to high-quality scientific talent and potential commercial partners in the same geography. Their documented capability in macaque challenge models is rare among SMEs; most CROs at this scale do not operate NHP systems, which means they likely provide access to a capability that larger consortia need but cannot easily replicate in-house. For consortium builders, Adlego represents a specialized preclinical node that can de-risk antiviral or vaccine candidates before clinical entry.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Fight-nCoV
  The larger of Adlego's two projects (€620,588) and the more technically distinctive — explicitly involving macaque animal models and pseudotype virus systems to test broad-spectrum antivirals, representing a high-specification preclinical capability rarely held by SMEs.
• OPENCORONA
  A longer-running project (2020–2024) focused on an open coronavirus vaccine platform, showing Adlego's ability to contribute to vaccine-side pipeline work alongside their antiviral expertise.