Assistant health director Espen Nakstad is a shareholder in an infection control company that doubled its turnover in 2020. He may have received millions in increased share values.
– It is true that I am one of the inventors who in 2014 made an incubator for Ebola patients. The invention was commercialized by the innovation company of Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo in collaboration with Norwegian industrial partners, says Nakstad to Finansavisen, who first mentioned the case.
Nakstad is also a board member of the company, EpiGuard, which in 2019 had sales of NOK 4.8 million. In the corona year that followed, the company had sales of NOK 99.9 million, with an operating profit of NOK 47 million. Nakstad owns 2.6 percent of the shares. Finansavisen writes that Nakstad’s shareholding may be worth NOK 15 to 16 million.
Nakstad is aware that his affiliation with the company does not entail conflicts of interest with the position in the Norwegian Directorate of Health. He says that the board position is unpaid, and that he has had no ambition to make money on the invention he contributed to.
– I have naturally declared myself incompetent in all potential cases related to this invention with previous and current employers, in line with the Norwegian impartiality regulations, says Nakstad, and says that last year he asked for an assessment of his impartiality to be on the safe side. since.
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