FIT Biotech, a privately held biotechnology company developing novel, proprietary immunotherapies for HIV/AIDS and other viral diseases, announced results today from a Phase II clinical trial. The company's immunomodulator FIT-06 showed unprecedented long-term reductions in viral load (approximately 0.5 log) and statistically significant CD4 cell count increases in HIV-infected, previously untreated patients. The effect lasted longer than two years in the absence of any anti-retroviral therapy.

The study, carried out in South Africa, represents the first time that an immune-based HIV intervention has reduced viremia in previously untreated patients. The results offer hope for an eventual alternative to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for those millions of HIV-infected patients in the developing world who have no access to ART. "This is the first demonstration that an immune-based therapy can interfere with HIV replication in infected people who have not yet started ART," said Professor of Medicine Giuseppe Pantealeo of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, an investigator on the study. "By analyzing these patients' immune responses in detail, we will gain invaluable information to guide us in further improving the vaccine."

"These result are very exciting as an early indicator that this approach can work. Treatment of infected individuals with an immunomodulator that can modify the course of the infection and progression to AIDS has the potential to offer hope to many chronically infected individuals in South Africa not yet eligible for antiretroviral therapy" said Dr. Eftyhia Vardas, the Principal Investigator of FIT Biotech's clinical study. Dr. Vardas was recently nominated as Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Virology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

"Once it has been tested in additional clinical trials, FIT-06 has the potential to offer several big advantages," said Kalevi Reijonen, President & CEO of FIT biotech. "Immediate benefits to patients include the possibility that the start of antiretroviral therapy could be delayed and that patients might be able to take longer drug holidays. Also, by reducing their lifetime drug burden, FIT-06 therapy might lessen the side effects associated with long-term use of antiretroviral therapy. Finally, FIT-06 could contribute to a slowing in the evolution of drug-resistant strains of HIV."

The results will be presented today at the XVIII International AIDS 2010 Conference in Vienna. There will be both a poster presentation as well as a press conference featuring Drs. Pantaleo and Vardas as well as a representative of FIT Biotech.

FIT-06 is a DNA-based vaccine developed by FIT Biotech and based on FIT Biotech's novel, proprietary GTU® technology. As a therapeutic vaccine, it is distinct from prophylactic (preventative) vaccines currently in development. FIT-06 is used to treat patients who are already infected. FIT-06 in particular and GTU technology in general represent an exciting new platform that, compared to many other HIV vaccine technologies, offers advantages such as more sustained expression of the inserted sequences, low dose requirements and an excellent safety profile. In this trial, FIT-06 was tested as a standalone treatment but in principle it could also be deployed in conjunction with ART.

The placebo-controlled Phase II study included sixty previously untreated volunteers recruited at the University of Witwatersrand Clinic in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. At enrollment, patients had a plasma viral load of greater than 38,000 copies per ml and a CD4 cell count of more than 500 cells per µl. Patients were dosed either intramuscularly (IM) or intradermally (ID). The results, which were more impressive in the intramuscular group, were analyzed at the end of the study, which concluded after 108 weeks. Viral loads were reduced by 0.47 log with a p-vallue of 0.001 in the intramuscular group. CD4 cell counts increased by 72 cells per µl with a p-value of 0.013.

There are more than 33 million HIV-positive people in the world today, with 5.7 million in South Africa alone, including 3.2 million women. The country's anti-retroviral programme has been in place since 2004 and more than 500,000 people have been treated.

Tribeflame, a Finnish electronic board game developer has announced a funding round from a fund managed by Aboa Ventures and a private angel investor, Petteri Laitala.

Tribeflame is developing games for tablet devices, including iPad. The company has already launched two titles (Keltis Oracle & RaceCar) which is pretty well done given that the company was founded not more than a year ago and currently employs only two people.

The company aims to be the number one maker of "electronic board games" in the world. Tribeflame expects to "make money" with their games in one year.

Now that the World Cup is over and the Spanish sports fans can proudly say they are by far the best soccer country in the World, Sofanatics Ltd. (also known as  Holygoal Ltd.), a Finnish start-up focusing on bringing fans together over video during live broadcasts, has announced a seed funding round from a group of Finnish angel investors. The investors include Petteri Koponen of Lifeline Ventures (A Finnish VIGO startup accelerator), Jyri Engeström (ex-Jaiku, ex-Google) and Aki Riihilahti (a Soccer Pro).

Sofanatics was founded in 2009 by some names you should know in the Finnish startup scene:
-    Sami Kuusela (ex-Klak, ex-mprec, etc.)
-    Asmo Halinen (Co-Founder of Apaja Online, Ex-OneDidIt, etc)
-    Toni Laturi (ex-Valve)

Another interesting character who has been involved since the early days is a Finnish broadcasting veteran, Peter Nyman. Peter has a long career at YLE Broadcastig corporation and has recently joined MTV3 as a news anchor. Also a huge soccer enthusiast.

Another close YLE relation is the fact that mr. Mikael Jungner, the former CEO of YLE joined the Sofanatics board a few months ago (currently the board consists of Mr. Jungner, Mr. Nyman, Mr. Halinen and Petteri Koponen of Lifeline Ventures).

Cellictica, the Finnish powerhouse developing innovative speech empowered apps, has recently managed to score some success in the application space:

1) Trippo Voice Translator Plus is right now in Top 25 most downloaded free apps in iPhone US appstore, and numero uno in Reference category

2) Trippo Voice Translator was selected as a finalist for Gettieawards in J2ME category. (GetJar had around 7000 apps in the competition, so already being among top3 in J2ME is a positive result). The Gettie Awards 2010 is the mobile app world’s equivalent of the Oscars osted by GetJar. The Gettie Awards will honor the successes and innovations of the best application developers across all major platforms from around the world.

Trippo Voice Translator Plus is an ultimate tool for travelers and other people in need to communicate with foreign languages. It allows you to speak anything and translates and speaks that out in another language. Trippo is availablein J2ME, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and soon also with Blackberry and Bada handsets.

Trippo Voice Translator Plus is a free download allowing users to upgrade full functionality within the app. The app is currently among top free downloads in the iPhone App Store and soon available in the worlds biggest inpdependent app store, GetJar.

“We’re thrilled to be chosen as a finalist for the Getties,” said Kimmo Sainio, from Cellictica. “It’s an honor to be recognized by industry luminaries and the number one cross-platform app store.”

Equal Dreams has entered into a co-operation agreement with 7digital Ltd, a digital content provider, bringing us all the music from all major record labels (Universal, SonyMusic, EMI and Warner) plus a great number of independent labels as well. The deal covers Finland, Germany and Sweden .

Equal Dreams is a platform for music makers and music friends. Their goal is to build the best possible market place with innovative tools for music where artists and fans can freely participate and collaborate in the music business.

7digital is a leading digital B2B media delivery company based in London and operating globally.  They provide comprehensive digital download services to a wide and diverse range of partners around the world.

The funding will be used for enhancing the industrial design and productization of Tassu ESP's emission filtration systems. Mikkeli based Tassu ESP was founded in 2008 to commercialize Tampere University of Technology's research of combustion gas filtration, which is based on diffusion charge of the particles. The innovation enables cheap and reliable filtration solutions for both industrial and domestic applications. The upcoming EU legislation considering small particle emissions will reduce the emissions of industrial factories and domestic use, such as the burning of wood. The burning of wood has been found dentrimental to health because of the small particles and other organic compounds. However, because of climate change, it is important to use renewable energy sources, and Tassu ESP's cheap gas filtration solutions make possible the future use of fireplaces as part of domesting heating.

ESP stands for electrostatic precipitation. In practice, the particles are electrostatically charge and collected to modular particle collection units, which can be customized to meet the unique customer needs. The components for the device will be subcontracted to different machine shops around Mikkeli area.

After making it possible for Average Joe to become a lead guitarist and throw improvised solos like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page, Virtual Air Guitar Company is back in spotlights again. The upcoming title, Kung Fu Live, was recently showcased at the annual E3 video game conference. Following the same concept as in Virtual Air Guitar, Kung Fu Live let’s you personally kick the asses of bad guys instead of putting you in the shoes of a predetermined superhero character. That is to say, you’re watching yourself running down the virtual streets of a town while your actual movements - punches, kicks and dodges – are accurately incorporated in the game. Naturally, your character will be boosted with some supernatural abilities as well! Unfortunately domesticated martial artists have to wait for awhile to fulfill their warrior fantasies; the game is released on PlayStation® Network later this fall.

Teemu Mäki-Patola, CEO of Virtual Air Guitar Company, is confident of their motion detection system: “FreeMotion® technology replaces the traditional game controller for consoles and PC, offering a whole new way to play video games. Kung-Fu LIVE will be one of the top notch PSEye and Move games coming to market this year.” Indeed, after watching the video, I’m especially astonished how the software is able to render the background and capture the gestures without any added equipment. Furthermore, as the whole Finnish gaming industry is gaining major international momentum, the individual companies have been able to find unique niches and hone their skills to introduce industry-changing titles to the playing audience. Our politicians and other decision-makers are frantically thinking global industries, where Finns could excel and bring enough added value, but somehow multi-billion dollar growing gaming and entertainment sector does not seem to interest them enough. Hopefully this is going to change soon. In any case, Finnish gaming sector is definitely something to follow closely at the moment.

The story behind Virtual Air Guitar Company is truly where Finnish innovation system is aiming for – university level research project receives media attention, gets initial public funding and becomes a well-established global business. Besides raising money from Tekes and Finnish Industry Investment, Virtual Air Guitar Company’s financiers include nationally interesting Warner Bros. (with 15% of shares) and notable business mentor Pirjo Kekäläinen-Torvinen. Technopolis Online did a short interview with Pirjo about her involvement in the company.

Why were you initially interested in Virtual Air Guitar Company?

“I had been working for a long time as a mentor for Technopolis Ventures that is how Virtual Air Guitar Company’s founders and their project were introduced to me. As it was a startup in question, I wanted to invest ‘mentor capital’ to the company, which besides the money includes hands-on participation in the development of the company. I became interested in Virtual Air Guitar Company’s project because of the novelty of the idea (technology, industry) and its global market potential. Naturally, the founders’ right attitude and enthusiasm of getting things done affected positively my view of the venture.”

What kept you believing in the idea?

“After committing myself to the project and being responsible for setting the targets for the company, I see myself partly accountable for the executive tasks too. Anyway, I’d say this venture has become more interesting every year after its launch.”

How do you see the future for the company?

“Gaming industry is growing rapidly and the digital distribution is in favor of independent game developers. The threshold to enter the market is really high for companies in the gaming industry and Virtual Air Guitar Company is near the breakthrough with its upcoming launch. Every game published by Virtual Air Guitar Company will push the company towards more successful future. When talking about tomorrow, there are no other plans than to become more triumphant with every step we take.”

Aalto Venture Garage is the hub where entrepreneurs throughout the Baltic area get support and work together to grow their businesses. Aalto Venture Garage Bootcamp is an intensive two week training program for the best startup teams. It is expected that more than 200 teams from all around the world will apply to the next Bootcamp in September.

Aalto Venture Garage started with grassroots initiatives by a group of students and entrepreneurs at Aalto University who saw the need for change in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Finland.

Aalto Venture Garage runs Bootcamps four times a year.  It’s designed to help pre-seed startups to become successful ventures with the coaching of the Nordics’ best entrepreneurs and investors.The winners receive 5000€ in seed funding, exclusive coaching and workspace in the Garage as they become Garage Startups.

The culture at Bootcamp is open, sharing and helping, taking a cue from the open source model made famous by well known Finnish companies such as Linux and MySQL.

“Teams at Bootcamp are co-operating; they are working on each other’s ideas and challenging them. It’s not only a competition but more about sharing and team building” says Juha Ruohonen, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Aalto Venture Garage.

Audiodraft, a Garage Startup, has incorporated the open source model in a unique way. The company, featured in NYTimes last week, is a web community for managing collaborative audio projects.

“The Garage has been an excellent place to work, it provides a great opportunity to push ideas further with the help of enthusiastic entrepreneurs and coaches.” says Teemu Yli-Hollo, CEO of Audiodraft.

The next Bootcamp will take place during the last two weeks of September. It is expected that more than 200 teams from all around the world will apply to the next Bootcamp, of which ten teams will be selected. Deadline for all applications is September 8, 2010.

Zonga Ltd, a Finnish internet company, has released a new solution to access the internet. Travelers need internet connection anywhere they go. Until this point they have been forced to use their own mobile phone or Wi-Fi Hot Spots to access internet. Mobile roaming data charges are very expensive and hot spots can be hard to find. Zonga will change this game by offering international travelers Zonga Mobile Wi-Fi rental service. Zonga service includes all you can eat data, easy to use device and simple daily pricing. Pick up and drop off locations at the airports and downtown hotels offer travelers hassle free internet to go.

They offer access to internet by utilizing mobile broadband data network. Their fixed daily price includes everything from unlimited data to returnable device. The rental device is a 3G Wi-Fi modem. Unlike traditional mokkula or internet stick there's no need to install anything. The device includes a battery and it allows up to 5 simultaneous connections. It can be used with any Wi-Fi enabled device.

Zonga service point is located at Helsinki Airport (Terminal 2, Arrival Hall 2A). At the Helsinki Airport the device can be returned to our service point and to dedicated drop off boxes located at the following Restaurants. Just look for the green mail boxes with Zonga labels.

SSP partnership restaurants at the airport: My City Helsinki, Wine & View, Roberts Coffee, Bar Delight.

Zonga can also be found from Restel business hotels in Helsinki. Just ask Hotel Receptionist for Zonga.

Restel partnership hotels in Helsinki: Crowne Plaza Helsinki, Holiday Inn Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre, Holiday Inn Helsinki City Centre, Holiday Inn Helsinki West - Ruoholahti.

The charge is 9 eur per day including all costs. The general terms and conditions will be available for our customers at the time of rental.

The acquisition of the business operations in the Finnish healthcare IT solutions provider Intensium Oy expands Tieto's industry leading position in Europe. Intensium's business consists of two solutions: benchmarking for healthcare service providers and management of healthcare workflow. The business will be transferred to Tieto on 1 July 2010. Intensium's 17 employees will move to Tieto as continuing employees on the same day.Intensium has the leading position in providing benchmarking services for healthcare service providers in Finland. The benchmarking service, provided as a SaaS service, monitors the customer's care process performance generally by assessing where there are gaps between their own performance and the other members of the benchmarking consortium. Organizations can use these assessments to identify best practices they would like to adopt. The healthcare workflow management solution is used in Finnish hospitals. The solution provides an immediate possibility to standardize the customer's care process, eliminate redundant steps, and intensify the use of special know-how.

"This acquisition is a natural step of executing our strategy and improving our offering portfolio. I'm pleased to see how this enhances our competences and ability to offer new advanced measuring and benchmarking tools to European healthcare service providers. With these tools, our customers are able to further improve the quality and efficiency of their services," says Arto Ryymin, responsible for the Healthcare & Welfare business in Tieto.

"Our main objective has been to promote our healthcare customers' ability in continuous improvement. Valuable collaboration with Tieto has convinced us that together we are able to provide outstanding solutions and services for healthcare organizations," says Kari Lappalainen, CEO of Intensium Oy.

Tieto helps healthcare and welfare organizations to improve the quality and efficiency of their services. We enable our customers to optimize processes, reduce waiting times, secure the flow of information, make high quality decisions and empower citizens. We are the leading healthcare and welfare ICT provider in the Nordic countries with a strong presence in Germany and the Netherlands. With 40 years of experience and a thorough understanding of our customers' processes, we help our customers to secure the future of care services and develop lifecare services at the individual, regional and national level.