Why are biotechs booming in Barcelona? Nature, the most prestigious scientific journal in the world, has highlighted three biotech startups based in Barcelona and members of CATALONIA.HEALTH, Nuage Therapeutics, Ona Therapeutics and SpliceBio. It has been done so in a recent article on the rise of the life sciences sector, in a special section dedicated to deepening scientific advances and key trends in innovation.

According to the publication in Nature, the presence of world-class research centres and university hospitals, together with a scientific and innovative culture and a prosperous investment ecosystem, make Barcelona an emerging star in the life sciences sector, as shown by these three companies.

The three outstanding biotechnology companies

Nuage Therapeutics, also in the field of oncology, focuses its efforts on addressing a type of protein that escapes most of the treatments currently available. They are intrinsically disordered proteins (PIDs), which do not have a fixed structure, are flexible and dynamic, which makes it difficult to bind with traditional small molecules and makes them a challenge for classic drug design strategies. Currently, it works by applying its proprietary technology to the development of a new line of therapeutic agents aimed at oncogenic transcription factors.

Ona Therapeutics works to overcome resistance. In the field of oncology, Ona Therapeutics wants to fight cancer by creating therapies capable of counteracting the mechanisms that allow its spread and survival. Their antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) combine specific drugs with antibodies, and act directly on tumour cells. The company’s research focuses on detecting the molecular changes that occur when cancer adapts to traditional therapies, using samples from real patients. Its main drug candidate, ONA-255, plans to enter clinical trials by the end of 2025 to treat solid tumours such as breast cancer and gastric cancer.

SpliceBio works in one of the most promising fields for the treatment of rare diseases, gene therapy, and its study focuses on an innovation that could solve the fact that many genetic disorders are still intractable because the necessary gene is too large to fit the vectors. The company has developed a pioneering protein splicing technology based on the use of a family of patented artificial proteins, called inteins, which have already managed to reach the first patient with their main candidate, SB-007, a gene therapy with two AAV vectors for the treatment of Stargardt disease, a hereditary retinal disorder caused by mutations in the ABCA4 gene.

Both Ona Therapeutics and SpliceBio have received the CATALONIA.HEALTH award (formerly the Bioèxit award) in recognition of their careers, for the years 2020 and 2022 respectively.

Hospitals, research and investment

The article also highlights Barcelona’s potential for the ecosystem of collaborations between hospitals such as Vall d’Hebron and the Clinic of Barcelona, both members of CATALONIA.HEALTH, as a key fact for access to patients and clinical trials for companies in the sector.

Finally, it highlights how the biotechnology investment sector is growing, attracting the eyes of more and more international investors, or having local venture capital firms such as Asabys Partners, Ysios Capital and Alta Life Sciences, all of them also members of the CATALONIA.HEALTH community.

Read the article in Nature