Published: 22 January 2026
Text: Anne-Marie Korseberg Stokke
Photo: Anne-Marie Korseberg Stokke
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For researcher and cardiologist Maria Vistnes, the idea of starting a company had been simmering in the background for some time. It took a maternity leave to grow comfortable with the thought.
“On my walks with the stroller, I listened a lot to American podcasts about researchers who had left academia. They said it takes at least a year to truly realize that you’re no longer part of it.”
Last autumn, she took the leap and founded Klyv Therapeutics. There, she works on developing a new drug to treat stiffness of the heart, known as cardiac fibrosis. This was also the topic of Vistnes’ PhD at the University of Oslo and the Institute for Experimental Medical Research back in 2012. But even though previous research forms the foundation of the idea, the road ahead is long and full of obstacles.
“We’re building on a treatment principle from previously published research, but we lack the actual products, concrete drug candidates, that can realise it. Although we have a chemical starting point from earlier programs for other indications, we’re starting more or less from scratch. We need to create new molecules that hit the right target and work in the right disease—and then refine and optimise them until they have the properties we need,” Vistnes explains.
“And if you were to say it even more simply?”
“It means we have to test a lot of molecules and run increasingly advanced experiments before we end up with something that can be used in a new medicine,” she says with a smile.
Fortunately, she is not doing this work alone. She has an international team producing data in what she calls “the big chemistry year of 2026.”
“We collaborate with consultants and companies in Poland, England, and India who are experienced in drug development. They provide services in computational chemistry, synthesis, and testing, and they also help us organise the work, set strategy, and interpret data. That way, we can set ourselves up smartly as a small company without having to hire many people.”
Klyv Therapeutics operates in a part of drug development that often lacks both funding and strong competence environments in Norway—where you must design, build, and optimize the molecules themselves before you can even talk about animal studies or testing in patients. Vistnes points out that Norway has historically had a “blind spot” in this specific phase of drug development.
“Many environments are used to seeing projects only once a candidate is already there, or when you’re approaching clinical studies. But much of the value creation—and many of the most important decisions—happen before that. Capital that can actually tolerate early-stage risk is therefore crucial if more research findings are to become treatments.”
Recently, she secured investment from the newly established fund Aleap Ventures, which specialises in early-stage health and biotech companies. They are investing alongside Startuplab’s investment fund and three angel investors. Previously, the company has received support from Eurostars, Women TechEU, the Research Council of Norway, and the Regional Research Fund Oslo.
“If we want to see more companies spin out of research in Norway, it’s essential that funds like Aleap Ventures and Startuplab exist and can invest at an early stage. The expertise they bring enables them to see the potential.”
Although she sometimes misses the hospital, Klyv Therapeutics is simply a new way of helping the patients Vistnes has met as a cardiologist over many years. As a doctor, she treated individual patients; as a founder, she is trying to build the very ‘recipe’ for treatment. But she doesn’t feel that she has let go of research.
“I’m still doing really exciting science! For me, it’s a plus that I can put the focus on publications aside and work toward a different goal. At the same time, I get to collaborate with a diverse team that shares my love of science.”
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