The pharmaceutical firm Almirall, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, launches its sixth call for proposals with the aim of establishing collaborations in dermatological research through the open innovation platform AlmirallShare.

The call is addressed to biotech start-ups, pharmaceutical companies, universities and research centres over the world. The submission period is open until October 31, 2021.

“AlmirallShare has increasingly earned recognition from the scientific community since was launched in 2017. We truly believe in groundbreaking innovation and cross collaboration as the way to succeed, and AlmirallShare allows us to strengthen our network to identify new opportunities in medical dermatology" says ...

Moirai Biodesign, a start-up member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech and specialised in the development of RNA-based solutions for new therapies and diagnostic systems has launched MoiRNAiFold, a best-in-class software for the design of complex RNA molecules. 

The application of synthetic RNA is very innovative and has great medical and pharmacological potential, as it opens the door to a new generation of targeted therapies for neurological, oncological or neurodegenerative pathologies as well as for the development of new antibiotics and vaccines. 

“One of the greatest advantages of synthetic RNA therapeutic approaches is the ability to adapt quickly to new ...

After being cancelled due to COVID-19 last year, the international tech startup event 4 Years From Now (4YFN) is back today through 1 July at the Fira Barcelona fairgrounds.

For the first time, 4YFN is part of the core of Mobile World Congress (MWC), maximising interactions between startups, investors and multinational companies.

Also new this year, the event has a special space for health called the Digital Health Hub. This is where the BioRegion of Catalonia pavilion is located, promoted by CataloniaBio & HealthTech, ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia), Tech Barcelona and Biocat with 27 participating companies and organisations from this ...

Today, CataloniaBio & HealthTech attended the presentation of the 2020 Asebio Report: The year of biotechnology, which took place at the ICEX headquarters in Madrid (with a limited capacity) and was broadcast live on social networks.

Ion Arocena, CEO of the Spanish Bioindustry Association (Asebio), explained the most important figures for the biotechnology sector in Spain:

Arocena also pointed out that the sector "plays a fundamental ...

TIC Salut Social Foundation, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has presented an updated version of its guide on developing mobile apps for health and social care (in Catalan).

The first edition was published in 2018.After these years of experience with various initiatives and networking on apps, the new guide highlights ethics, user experience, interoperability, privacy, security, reliability and clinical evidence.

Collaborators include the UVic-UCC Grífols Foundation Bioethics Chair, i2cat Foundation, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Centre for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), ONCE Catalunya and Ambit BST.

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On 15 June, the Spanish Council of Ministers passed the 2021-2023 State Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research Plan, which comprises a slate of actions and investments in science and innovation and establishes the most strategic sectors (health, ecological transition and digitalisation).

The most noteworthy elements of the plan are more stable scientific degree programmes, new calls for projects, more incentives for knowledge transfer and promoting synergies among the autonomous communities. 

One of the grant programmes for SMEs that will be expanded is Neotec.

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Vytrus Biotech, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, closed 2020 with record turnover of €1.7 million, up 40% from 2019.

The audited annual accounts of this industrial biotechnology firm based in Terrassa (Barcelona) reflect a 200% increase in operating profit (EBITDA) for a total of €591,000.

This year, Vytrus has continued international expansion of its business based on the development, production and sale of plant-based active ingredients for the cosmetic and healthcare sectors.

Vytrus is one of the 10 companies chosen by CataloniaBio & HealthTech to take part in the first BIOMED ScaleUP corporate growth programme with mentors Xavier ...

Gain Therapeutics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member with headquarters in Lugano (Switzerland) and R&D departmant at Barcelona, signed an agreement collaboration with the US firm Zentalis Pharmaceuticals to discover new candidates for the treatment of cancer. 

Zentalis is developing a promising pipeline of oncology best-in-class drugs. To identify new sites on target proteins for potential use in oncology they will use SEE-Tx® computational platform technology. SEE-Tx® applies a proprietary computational algorithm and supercomputer processing to the published 3D structure of proteins to discover new binding sites with the ability to modulate protein function. 

Both Zentalis, which ...

Pharmaceutical company Ferrer, a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, announces its continued commitment to digital health with the third edition of its innovation programme Ferrer 4 Future.

Ferrer 4 Future aims to empower entrepreneurs to co-develop disruptive health solutions using digital technology. Start-ups interested in participating in this edition must propose solutions to one of these challenges:

The Catalonia 2022 working group has submitted the Reset document to the Government with 91 actions to help reactivate Catalonia and solve structural issues that the health crisis caused by COVID-19 has brought to light or aggravated.

The suggested actions have been divided into three areas and target both the Government and other public and private entities in Catalonia:

Catalonia 2022 working group has engaged in dialogue with more than 400 organisations from all spheres of society ...

Abzu, a startup founded simultaneously in Barcelona and Copenhagen in 2018, has closed a €6-million round of investment. Participants included international venture capital funds from the Nordic countries like Seed Capital, Inventure and PreSeed Ventures, as well as several business angels. 

Abzu offers an artificial intelligence platform that allows users to make precise predictions and find mathematical solutions to complex problems, which facilitates decision-making for researchers and speeds up clinical studies and drug development.

Elizabeth Gil-Roldán, head of Business Development at Abzu in Barcelona, explains that this funding will go towards “strengthening the development team for the technology ...

PHOTOS

The first edition of the CataloniaBio & HealthTech BIOMED ScaleUP programme finished on 27 May with an in-person session, taking all COVID-19 precautions, where the 10 participating companies shared what they had learned after 36 hours of corporate growth training and personalised guidance over 4 months.

Company representatives, mainly CEOs and business development directors, gave BIOMED ScaleUP an excellent for its quality and usefulness for developing the company’s growth project. 

They all agreed that the training sessions are useful for learning to grow in an organised manner, implementing specific management tools, avoiding common mistakes and being aware ...

LIM Global, a company with over 20 years of experience in human resources and recruitment for the biomedicine and health sector, has updated its brand and website in order to convey its experience, international vision, team and new areas of activity in this increasingly digital world.

Over the years, LIM Global has recruited roughly 800 C-Level professionals and middle-managers for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and digital health startups and companies.

Member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, LIM Global is currently present in 60 countries with over 400 consultants. 

Visit the new website: https://limglobal.com/

Grifols is taking another step forward in Alzheimer research. The Catalan biotech group, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and Ace Alzheimer Center are opening the first Ambar Center in Barcelona to collect data from standard clinical practice in Alzheimer.

The Ambar Center will be located at the Ace facility and managed by its medical professionals.

Grifols’ Ambar programme is based on daily plasma exchange with albumin. The procedure has been proven to delay cognitive and functional progression in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer patients in a Phase IIB/III clinical trial.

“The goal is to get data to complement the results of the ...

The prestigious journal Oncotarget has published a study conducted by the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), Takeda, Anaxomics Biotech and the Pompeu Fabra University Research Group on Structural Bioinformatics that compares the mechanisms of action of brigatinib and alectinib to first-line drugs for lung-cancer patients with ALK gene rearrangement.

The study was carried out with Anaxomics TPMS (Therapeutic Performance Mapping System) technology based on systems biology and artificial intelligence. TPMS can be used in different phases of drug development and in this study was used to simulate patients with ALK+ lung cancer treated with the drugs above.

Enric Carcereny of ...

MJN-neuro has opened a €1-million crowdequity round through the Capital Cell platform to finance the marketing plan for the new mjn-SERAS device, the first wearable device that is able to predict the likelihood of suffering an epileptic seizure.

MJN-neuro is one of the 10 companies selected to participate in the BIOMED ScaleUP corporate growth programme run by CataloniaBio & HealthTech.

MJN-neuro has received several international recognitions since its creation in 2014, including the Epilepsy Foundation in the United States, which considers it to be one of the most promising startups offering products to improve the quality of life of ...

CataloniaBio & HealthTech presented its new Sustainability Workgroup yesterday, which will encourage companies in Catalonia’s biomedicine and health sector to be on the cutting-edge of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) and to help have a positive effect on society.

The session included some twenty CEOs, CFOs, COOs and directors of Sustainability, Business Development, Communication, Sales and Marketing at CataloniaBio & HealthTech member companies. 

The WG will be a forum for debate and work where participants can discover and share trends, news, regulations and good practices on sustainability that affect the sector, seek out synergies among companies and promote ...

Ysios Capital, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed its third fund Ysios BioFund III at 216 million euros.

The venture capital firm specialised in the biotechnology sector will invest in 15 start-ups and development-stage companies in Europe and the US. The total investment size per company will typically be of up to €20 million.

More than 60% of the portfolio has already been constructed, with eight investments made in the last 12 months: Ona Therapeutics (oncology), SpliceBio (gene therapy), VarmX (blood clotting), Lava Therapeutics (oncology), SparingVision (gene therapy), Synendos (neuropsychiatry), Adcendo (oncology) and Cytoki (inflammation).

After 13 years of ...

Aelix Therapeutics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member that Ysios Capital holds a stake in, has named Melanie Rolli its new CEO, taking over for José Luis Cabero.

This change comes after announcing, this past March, the positive results of the Phase I/II clinical trial on its HIV vaccine, which will help support future development of therapeutic strategies to control the disease without having to turn to ongoing antiretroviral therapy.

Melanie Rolli has a PhD in Pharmacology from Heidelberg University (Germany). From 2017 to 2021, she was CEO of Piqur Therapeutics AG in Basel (Switzerland). Previously, she spent 14 years ...

Ambit BST, an IT services company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, is consolidating its range of training courses with the launch of the Health Tech Institute.

Ambit BST is expanding its portfolio of ongoing training courses on new standards and digital transformation for professionals working in R&D, quality, regulatory, clinical, validation, production, IT and distribution areas of companies in the biomedicine and health sector. CataloniaBio & HealthTech members have special discounts on most of the courses (available on a regular basis through the Agenda on this website).

Ambit BST merged with CSV Experts at the beginning of 2020 and brings ...