Half a billion in donations to Karolinska Institutet

Other donors that have contributed to the campaign include the Jochnick Foundation, AFA Insurance, the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg foundations and the pharmaceutical company Meda.

In addition, the Barbro and Bernard Osher foundations have previously made a significant contribution to the Osher Centre for Integrative Medicine. Overall the donations total 580 million skr for medical research.

“We’re proud of Karolinska Institutet, as I think all Swedes should be. Their work is im¬portant for Sweden and the world”, says Stefan Persson, chairman of the Erling-Persson Family Foundation and member of Karolinska Institutet’s fundraising committee. “This is why we in the Erling-Persson Family Foundation have now decided to make a substantial donation to Karolinska Institutet.”

‘Breakthroughs for life’ supports research in which Karolinska Institutet is a world leader, and in which investment can contribute in the coming years to medical breakthroughs. With the donations announced today, Karolinska Institutet has come more than half way towards meeting its billion crown target – which it hopes to have achieved by 2010, when KI celebrates its second centenary.

The single largest donation on 350 million skr will finance a new assembly hall at Karolinska Institutet’s campus in Solna, located in the north of Stockholm.

“We’re engaged in an active strategic drive to generate donations for such areas as cancer, cell therapy, allergy, rheumatism and cardiovascular diseases,” says Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, president of Karolinska Institutet. “Fundraising is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden, but in the future, it will be even more important if we want to make significant medical research breakthroughs.”