History

Dilafor AB was established in 2003 following the discovery that women treated with dalteparin, a Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH) used to prevent thrombosis during pregnancy had significantly shorter labor and fewer complications than controls.

Professor Gunvor Ekman-Ordeberg, one of the founders of the company, found that this effect was not related to the anticoagulant effect of dalteparin. With the objective to develop a treatment to prevent protracted labor in obstetrics, a group of twelve experts from science, drug development, production, and business management joined Professor Ekman-Ordeberg to form Dilafor AB together with Karolinska Innovations AB.

A New Chemical Entity (NCE) derived from heparin was defined for the prevention of protracted labor in 2003 and the first drug candidate, tafoxiparin, was produced on an industrial scale in 2004. In 2007, a second NCE, sevuparin, was selected to be documented for the treatment of severe malaria.