SpliceBio, a Barcelona-based biotech company in gene therapy, is a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech. The company is based on technology from Princeton University and has received the award for "Series A Investment Round of the Year in Europe" at the European LifeStars Awards organised by LSX (Life Science eXecutive partnering community).

The company is responsible for developing a new diagnostic method for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a respiratory disease that hampers air from entering the lungs. Antoni Rosell, Clinical Director of the Thorax Department of the Germans Trias Hospital, is mover of the project.

The ecosystem of life and health sciences in Catalonia is rich and spread throughout the territory, whether from the point of view of industrial potential, the various public centres and hospitals that generate knowledge in the sector or the capacity for investment. The Girona region has a growing cluster in the health sector and CataloniaBio & HealthTech has organised a conference to highlight this reality.

MinoryxTherapeutics, CataloniaBio& HealthTech member, alate-stage biotech company focused on the development of treatments for orphancentral nervous system (CNS) disorders and the Neuraxpharm Group (“Neuraxpharm”), a leading European specialty pharmaceutical companyfocused on CNS therapies, announced the completion of a strategic licenseagreement.

Professionals from the Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí, in Sabadell, shared clinical needs identified in their daily work in healthcare with companies and startups from CataloniaBio & HealthTech. It was held on the afternoon of 2 November, in the Auditorium of the Hospital Parc Taulí. The conference is promoted by CataloniaBio & HealthTech and it had the collaboration of the Parc Taulí Institute for Research and Innovation (I3PT) and ITEMAS.

The pandemic has put the health sector at the centre in many respects and has given it a new relevance. It has also brought to the table issues such as redefining industrialisation and innovation, an issue that centered the UnConference in 2021, and digital transformation, which has been the focus of debate at this year's edition, held at La Salle Campus Barcelona.

Syna Therapeutics, a joint venture of Reig Jofre (member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech) and Leanbio, announces a global license agreement with Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to commercialise its biosimilar drug LB-0702 for the treatment of haematology diseases.

Innerva Pharmaceuticals (Innerva), a company developing a new drug for the treatment of ocular pain associated with dry eye and other ocular surface diseases, has completed a €2,300,000 round led by venture capital firm Inveready, member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, through the Inveready Biotech III Fund.

Following the joint project started last march, DevsHealth incorporated its first spin-out 3CL-Bio, in cooperation with Fundació Lluita contra les infeccions and IrsiCaixa. The new company will serve as the vehicle to develop a new oral COVID-19 treatment.

BHV Partners, the first venture builder specialising in healthcare in Southern Europe, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been granted €200,000 in a participatory loan from the National Innovation Company (Enisa) to consolidate its organisational structure and continue to project its international growth.

Genomcore (Made of Genes), leading company in data solutions for the implementation of precision medicine, has launched an investment round through Capital Cell, Europe’s first online investment platform specialized in biomedicine. The goal of the campaign is to reach €500,000 of funding to prepare the entry of a new strategic partner that will accompany the internationalization of the company, eventually concluding in the establishment of the company in the USA.

Omomyc (OMO-103) is a therapeutic mini-protein developed by Peptomyc SL, a spin-off company by the VHIO and Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies’ (ICREA), which was co-founded by Laura Soucek in 2014. Having previously shown the preclinical efficacy and safety of this novel cell-penetrating mini-protein in mouse models, Laura Soucek’s team successfully developed anti-MYC peptides for the treatment of several tumor types, the first of which, OMO-103, now shows promise in becoming the first ever clinically viable and direct inhibitor of MYC – a protein implicated in driving and maintaining cancer.

Neuraxpharm Group (Neuraxpharm), a leading European pharmaceutical company specialising in the treatment of Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders, and mjn-neuro, a start-up that designs, produces and sells medical devices, have announced the signing of a marketing agreement for mjn-SERAS, a wearable medical device that predicts the risk of suffering an epileptic crisis.

BME's acceleration programme has incorporated four new companies into its "Entorno Pre Mercado" (EpM) programme, which aims to accelerate the company's stock market debut. Onalabs, a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, is one of these four companies, along with Ludium, Vamos and V2C.

AbilityPharma, the biopharmaceutical company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been granted with €2 million of non-dilutive funding to speed up the regulatory path for its anticancer autophagy inducer ABTL0812.

DeepUll, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has raised €13 million in a Series B financing round. The medical diagnostics company is developing culture-free, affordable diagnostic solutions for the early identification of sepsis and other acute infections.

ZeClinics has recently been awarded an EIC-Pathfinder Challenge by the European Innovation Council (EIC). Pathfinder are grants targeting specific strategic priorities with early-stage development of radically new technology and high-risk/high-gain breakthrough research. EdiGenT is one of the 8 selected projects over 132 eligible proposals in the strategic area of “Emerging technologies in cell and gene therapy”.

The Parc Taulí has obtained the license to manufacture customized health products in its facilities by the Generalitat de Catalunya. This license will allow the 3D Laboratory to manufacture in its facilities and supply to other hospital centers.  

A symposium, held in the framework of the PER-IADR in Marseille, has made a retrospective of the measures recommended in dentistry to protect against SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections, after more than two years of pandemic. Dentaid Research Center, members of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, stress the importance of establishing a protection protocol prior to the dental procedure, which includes mouth strips with highly effective antiseptics to control bacterial and viral infection during dental procedures.

Devicare, one of the leading biotechnology companies in urology in Spain, presents Canoxidin® to the market; a first-in-class oral treatment that will allow all Spanish urologists to reduce the risk of calcification of urological devices (bladder catheters, ureteral catheters or nephrostomy tubes) by up to 8 times according to the results of Torrecilla et al, 2020 published in BMC Urology.