Five CataloniaBio companies —Ability Pharma, Inbiomotion, Mosaic Biomedical, ProteoDesign and Xenopat— explain how they’ve made fighting cancer their business model. The excellence and innovation of the life sciences sector in Catalonia attracts venture capital, but it also needs large pharmaceutical corporations to reach patients.

Ability Pharma was one of the first biotechnology firms set up in the country and has licensed a drug for pancreatic cancer (considered a minority disease); Inbiomotion is working on a biomarker to predict bone metastasis; Mosaic Biomedical (spin-off of VHIO and ICREA) develops personalised treatments and will begin clinical trials on its first drug this year; ProteoDesign (spin-off of Princeton University and the University of Barcelona) is working on antibodies with its own patented technology; and Xenopat (spin-off of Idibell and ICO) provides model mice for personalised oncology treatments.

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Photo: From right to left, Roger Gomis (Inbiomotion), Judit Anido (Mosaic Biomedicals), Alberto Villanueva (Xenopat), Carles Domènech (Ability Pharma) and Miquel Vila-Perelló (ProteoDesign) - © Ara