Today Norway provides a more seamless and efficient pathway for conducting clinical trials than ever before.

“Norway offers a unique environment for advancing medical innovation and improving global healthcare outcomes,” states Signe Øien Fretland, head of the coordinating unit for NorTrials, a national point of entry for clinical trials for pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

“In addition, Norwegian healthcare has strong industry collaboration, cutting-edge research capabilities and a highly engaged population,” she adds.

In recent years, Norway has invested heavily in efforts to strengthen health research, including clinical trials. In 2021, the Norwegian government presented its National Action Plan for Clinical Trials, which established NorTrials as a public-private partnership to boost the number of clinical trials and improve patient access to new treatments.

Today, six NorTrials centres for clinical research are located at Norway’s university hospitals around the country. Each university hospital focuses on one research area. These are brain health, cancer, cardiovascular, clinical immunology, gastrointestinal, and medical devices.

Further development of NorTrials will remain in focus in the years ahead. In 2024, it was identified as one of 15 measures aimed at doubling health export revenue by 2030 under the Norwegian government’s national export initiative on health and life science.

Norway’s clinical trials infrastructure is built on some key strengths that promote high-quality data and results. NorTrials provides streamlined, single-point access to clinical resources, ensuring efficient feasibility and support processes.

In addition, Norway boasts access to highly specialised clinical trial units comprised of internationally recognised clinicians and researchers. These experts are at the forefront of medical innovation and offer invaluable insights into trial design and keys for successful study recruitment.

The country also offers unique, well-integrated health data registries and biobanks, creating an optimal environment for conducting trials requiring genetic and biomarker-based insights. This integration fosters precision medicine and advanced molecular diagnostics.

Moreover, Norway offers an advanced diagnostics infrastructure for precision diagnostics and advanced molecular diagnostics, all implemented within the public healthcare system. This infrastructure includes cutting-edge tools and techniques that are readily available to support innovative trials.

Finally, Norway’s well-structured specialist healthcare system, combined with the population’s high willingness to participate in clinical trials, makes recruitment faster and more efficient.

While Norway’s healthcare system is publicly funded, private sector organisations comprise the other necessary component of a clinical trials ecosystem.

In addition, research is one of four statutory duties in Norwegian hospitals and includes clinical trials conducted in collaboration with industry.

“Public-private partnerships like NorTrials foster a collaborative climate between the healthcare industry, contract research organisations (CROs) and the Norwegian healthcare service,” states Lars Erik Eng Eibak, Senior Medical Advisor in Oncology and Haematology at Eli Lilly Norway.

According to Eng Eibak, NorTrials offers a host of benefits. Firstly, it provides a structured and centralised platform for collaboration, ensuring that healthcare providers, CROs and industry players can communicate and coordinate effectively. This reduces duplication of effort and facilitates shared goals, such as faster clinical trial initiation and completion.

Secondly, by acting as a bridge between the public and private sectors, NorTrials can advise within local regulatory requirements and support with review of informed consent forms to simplify the trial approval processes. This makes Norway more attractive for clinical trials and reduces administrative burdens, enabling smoother collaborations.

Thirdly, Norway has high-quality healthcare infrastructure and centralised patient data, including national health registries and biobanks, which provide invaluable resources for clinical research.

Fourthly, collaboration through NorTrials fosters a culture of mutual trust. By working on shared projects, stakeholders can better understand each other’s challenges and priorities, creating a sense of shared responsibility for trial outcomes. The transparency and partnership mindset encourage long-term relationships.

In short, says Eng Eibak, “NorTrials exemplifies how public-private partnerships can create a cohesive ecosystem where stakeholders work together to achieve better outcomes.”

Norway has a long tradition of both research and development in radiopharmacology, covering the entire R&D value chain. For instance, Norwegian hospitals have conducted several first-in-human clinical studies in this field, as well as many Phase I, II and III studies.

“We have world-class healthcare and research infrastructure at Oslo University Hospital for radiopharmaceutical trials,” states Mona-Elisabeth Rootwelt-Revheim, Head of The Intervention Centre and Professor at Oslo University Hospital.

She explains that managing radiopharmaceutical trials can be a complex exercise. Sites with experienced, highly trained personnel are required, either within close proximity to the material’s manufacturing site or with the ability to provide the material at the site level.

“We have radiopharmaceutical production sites located inside the hospital as well as several nearby. We also have a close collaboration with industry. All the university hospitals have both preclinical and clinical facilities with cutting-edge equipment, and we are used to running multicentre studies,” she points out.

Norway has long experience with radiopharmaceutical trials. The first approved alpha-emitting radiopharmaceutical was developed at Oslo University Hospital. Notably, the only approved treatment of skeletal metastases in men with advanced prostate cancer, Xofigo®, was developed by Norwegian Algeta and is now marketed by Bayer.

In early 2025, the Norwegian government presented its new cancer strategy, Joint Effort Against Cancer 2025–2035, which sets goals for the field of oncology in the next 10 years. One of these goals aims to double the number of cancer patients participating in clinical trials.

“Specific goals for clinical trials in the cancer field are important as this is the driving force behind research in Norway,” states Signe Øien Fretland.

According to the strategy, a doubling of patients in clinical trials would amount to about 15 per cent of all cancer patients. The government aims for clinical research to be an integral part of all patient care and clinical practice. It also seeks to continue the long-term investment in clinical trials and will further develop the National Action Plan for Clinical Trials in 2025.

“A significant portion of clinical trials ongoing in Norway is in the cancer field. With clear goals from the government in a strategy that supports the National Action Plan for Clinical Trials, we will have a more powerful message to increase the total number of clinical trials,” she adds.

An especially promising area for clinical trials in cancer is theranostics, which in nuclear medicine involves diagnostic imaging using radioactively labelled tracers to identify a biological target structure, followed by internal radiation therapy using the same tracer. This ensures selective and targeted treatment of disease manifestations in the body.

Like the rest of Europe, the number of clinical trials in Norway has declined in the past decade, shifting to China and the US instead. But this downward European trend could be changing for Norway.

Recently the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly chose Norway for its groundbreaking SUNRAY-01 study, which examines the efficacy of a specific drug on advanced non-small cell lung cancer with a specific genetic alteration. The study represents a significant advancement in health research and treatment for patients with KRAS G12C mutations, potentially reshaping the treatment landscape for this specific patient group.

“The future for clinical trials in Norway looks promising,” concludes Lars Erik Eng Eibak of Eli Lilly Norway.