Dear members,

I’m writing you today on behalf of the whole CataloniaBio & HealthTech board to thank you, in these difficult times, for your solidarity and capacity to respond in order to ensure continued supply of essential healthcare products, participate in research into Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, innovate to cover the lack of equipment in hospitals, advise and invest so start-ups and companies can keep working towards their mission. 

I took the helm of CataloniaBioHT just a few weeks ago, eager to continue boosting the value that we contribute to the health and life sciences ecosystem in Catalonia. We are more than 160 companies, organisations and investors with a variety of profiles, but one common purpose: to develop innovative products and services for health. This shared goal gives us a unique wealth of knowledge and promotes collaboration as a network, which is so important in responding to healthcare needs. 

Now more than ever, we are taking on the role of calling on society and governments to recognise that the companies and organisations that make up CataloniaBioHT are key in tackling global health challenges. This crisis has shown the strategic importance of having a business sector that can respond immediately to cover the country’s needs (healthcare, medicines, medical equipment, telemedicine, fungible materials, etc.). For our sector to remain a driving force for the country’s economy (as you know the latest figures show it makes up 7.2% of the GDP), it will be essential to support innovative public purchasing and public and private investment over the coming months.

I also want to share with you that, in recent weeks, apart from announcing the grants and resources available and sending out a questionnaire to representatives from each member company, we have been working online to focus the programme of activities for the Covid-19 healthcare crisis in a way that will be useful to everyone. Based on the needs detected in the questionnaire under way, we will adjust our support initiatives and activities. We hope we can count on your active participation and/or suggestions, as always.

Additionally, we have kicked off a communication plan to boost the visibility of the initiatives under way in your organisations. So, the CataloniaBioHT online communication channels (website, newsletter, Weekly Bullets and social media) are at your disposal to support you in any way possible. To give you an idea of their scope, we get over 33,000 visits each year to the website and have more than 30,000 followers on social media, where we’ve detected high levels of virtual B2B networking.

Finally, we would like to show our solidarity with the sector by allowing flexible payment of this year’s membership fees for those who need it and hope this initiative will be of help to you.

I, all the members of the board and the whole team are here for anything you may need, and continue working for the future of the CataloniaBioHT member companies and organisations and the ecosystem as a whole.

Best regards,

Judit Anido
President