On this page you’ll find the latest news about CataloniaBio & HealthTech and the member companies and knowledge stakeholders in the field of health and life sciences.
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28 September 2020
With three months until the end of 2020, the life sciences and healthcare sector in Catalonia is flexing its muscles, in spite of expectations it would be a challenging year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Start-ups in this ecosystem, the most dynamic in Spain and one of the most active in southern Europe, have managed to raise €120 million in investment, well above the previous record from 2019, which was €112 million. This data is from the BioRegion of Catalonia Life Sciences and Healthcare Outlook 2020 - Challenges Ahead, the report presented today by Biocat and CataloniaBio & HealthTech.
President ...
25 September 2020
Minoryx Therapeutics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and Sperogenix Therapeutics entered into an exclusive license agreement for the development and commercialization of MIN-102 for the treatment of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Currently, there is no treatment for X-ALD.
Under the terms of the agreement, Minoryx will receive an initial upfront payment and pre-defined regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to €66-million, as well as double-digit royalties on annual net sales.
Marc Martinell, co-founder and CEO of Minoryx, says that "Sperogenix is a company with experience and capabilities in the field of rare diseases in ...
23 September 2020
Josep Amat, co-founder and CSO of Rob Surgical, received the Creu de Sant Jordi 2020 from the Government of Catalonia for his extensive background as a robotics engineer.
Amat is co-inventor of the new Bitrack robot for minimally invasive surgery, and the first entrepreneur from CataloniaBio & HealthTech to receive this recognition.
Currently, he is emeritus professor of architecture and computer science at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), advisor to the Robotics and Vision Group at the Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering-UPC and member of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC).
The awards ceremony took place on 21 September ...
23 September 2020
Asabys Partners, a venture capital firm and member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, has participated in Medasense Biometrics Ltd’s €15.2-million Series C round of funding along with investors such as Baxter and Olive Tree Ventures, among others.
Medasense was founded in Tel Aviv in 2008 by Galit Zuckerman and has offices in Barcelona and Berlin.
The company has developed sensor technology based on artificial intelligence (PMD-200) to monitor the pain of sedated patients and optimise the administration of anaesthesia, in critical-care and operating-room settings where patients are unable to communicate. Currently, the company is active in implementing its technology for ...
17 September 2020
ProteoDesign, founded in 2012 and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, rebrands as Splice Bio to develop novel gene therapies throught its proprietary platform based on technology developed in the Muir Lab at Princeton University.
The Barcelona-based biotech company also announces a new investment led by Ysios Capital and joined by Asabys Partners. This financing round was organised thanks to the support of existing shareholder Caixa Capital Risc.
Splice Bio pioneering platform has the potential to target genetic diseases that cannot be addressed with current gene therapies. Specifically, it has the potential to address two existing limitations of adeno-associated ...
10 September 2020
The founders of WIVI Vision, Eva García Ramos and Juan Carlos Ondategui-Parra, have made the Forbes Spain Top 100 most creative business people in Spain.
WIVI Vision is a medical solution that assesses children’s visual issues and offers early diagnosis and more advanced treatment than current ophthalmologic and optometry solutions. Specifically, WIVI uses immersive 3D software and a visual training plan personalised to each patient.
In Europe alone, there are over 15 million children with vision problems that are often confused with dyslexia and hyperactivity.
Eva García Ramos and Juan Carlos Ondategui-Parra founded the start-up E-Health Technical Solutions ...
9 September 2020
Methinks, a digital health start-up and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has raised €1.2 million in a round led by Nina Capital, along with other investors and business angels from the Capital Cell platform.
Methinks has developed medical imaging software that detects cerebral artery occlusions and haemorrhages using artificial intelligence (AI) without the need for a CT scan with contrast. The company’s disruptive technology is currently being developed at Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. This round of investment will allow it to launch the product to market and secure licensing deals.
Using AI to interpret medical images is ...
8 September 2020
The University of Barcelona (UB) and medical technology company Avinent have expanded their collaboration by launching a new chair to address the needs of the oral implantology sector
The chair will promote preclinical and clinical research and training through activities in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. A UB-Avinent Chair award will also be set up to foster clinical excellence in oral implantology.
Led by Albert Giralt, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech board member, Avinent is a global benchmark in latest generation dental implants and is present on all continents. The company works with dentists, prosthesis experts and maxillofacial ...
8 September 2020
IOMED, a digital health start-up and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €2-million investment round led by Adara Ventures. Existing investors in the company, such as Easo Ventures and Speedinvest, have also taken part.
The operation has had the legal support of the law firm DWF-RCD.
“This round’s goal is to strongly expand our team and continue the expansion in Spanish hospitals as well as to undertake more activities abroad with a particular focus on Germany and the United Kingdom,” explains Javier de Oca, co-founder and CEO of IOMED.
IOMED’s technology, based on artificial intelligence and natural ...
31 August 2020
Almirall, a global pharmaceutical company member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, launches its fifth call AlmirallShare to establish collaborations in research and identify new treatments for skin health.
The call seeks partnering opportunities for new assets (chemical entities, biologics and other advanced therapies) in order to maximize their value as innovative therapies.
Scientists all over the world can submit their proposal until 31 October, 2020.
AlmirallShare, led by Maribel Crespo, is responsible for 50% of the private-public collaborations at Almirall. This open innovation platform has received more than 350 proposals since its launch in 2017.
29 July 2020
The Centre for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies in Catalonia (CIMTI), an instrument of the Catalan health system that is working to valorise high-impact health innovations and make sure they reach society, has opened the CIMTI Challenge 2020 call for projects to transform and improve the healthcare model after Covid-19.
To establish the topics for the CIMTI Challenge 2020 call, the centre hosted a co-creation workshop in June, with organisations from the social and healthcare sector. CataloniaBio & HealthTech was there, represented by board member Alfons Nonell-Canals, an expert in artificial intelligence applied to health and CEO of ...
27 July 2020
Invivo Capital, through its Invivo Ventures fund, has invested in OneChain Immunotherapeutics, a spin-off founded by the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and Dr Pablo Menéndez last June in Barcelona.
OneChain Immunotherapeutics raised €3.05 million in seed capital through this round which also included the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, through its Innvierte programme managed by the CDTI, and the Josep Carreras Foundation in a clear commitment to bringing to its patients the research carried out by Dr Pablo Menéndez’s group. Dr Pablo Menéndez is an ICREA research professor, research ...
27 July 2020
Made of Genes, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €3-million pre Series-A capital increase led by Catalan family office FCV Equity. Other participants included the Scale Lab fund from the Crèdit Andorrà financial group and Break Off Capital (United Kingdom), as well as previous investors in the company like CG Health Ventures and business angel Albert Armengol (CEO of Doctoralia).
The capital raised will go to scale up the personalised health services Made of Genes offers, improve arrival to market and create new specialised products.
Recently, this company based in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) added a new test ...
23 July 2020
NEOS Surgery, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €5-million funding operation, with Avançsa (Government of Catalonia) and Jiadel Medical joining its shareholders.
It is a co-investment operation resulting from a deal reached in 2018 with Jiadel Medical, an international distribution partner, that combined a capital injection and a sales deal. The capital increase with Avançsa in 2020 culminates an operation that totalled €5 million in a combination of capital, business and a €1-million loan.
“This operation is key for our company to advance towards our next business milestones, including clinical validation of the new DISC care™ solution ...
14 July 2020
The biotech firm Archivel Farma, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has created a subsidiary called Immuni Therapeutics to apply the RUTI® vaccine for Covid-19 (it is currently being developed for tuberculosis).
Archivel will grant an exclusive licence for RUTI® to the new company to show its clinical effectiveness and prepare the regulatory framework and the productive capacity.
The initial investment required is €2M. To achieve this, Immuni Therapeutics has opened up a round on the Capital Cell investment platform. With this financing, they could conduct three clinical trials in different countries and increase production capacity for the vaccine (currently 2 ...
13 July 2020
Six experts at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona have shared different needs identified during Covid-19 with CataloniaBio & HealthTech start-ups and companies to generate synergies and develop solutions together that would reach healthcare professionals and patients as soon as possible. The meeting was held online within framework of the Hospital Connection event, on 7 July, which were organised by the CataloniaBio & HealthTech Innovation Workgroup. This time, they collaborated with the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).
Antonio Roman, head of Healthcare at Vall d’Hebron, said that “the challenge was our ICU capacity, and I would ask business ...
13 July 2020
Some 40 CEOs and board members at start-ups and companies in CataloniaBio & HealthTech met with representatives of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Innovation Council (EIC), on 8 July, as part of the CEO Council talks.
Montserrat Vendrell, managing partner at Alta Life Sciences and member of the board of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, stated that the first set of investment data in Europe shows that this is currently a very special and record-breaking year since life sciences and healthcare businesses have already raised the same amount that they did in all of 2019: over €5B in the ...
13 July 2020
An investor can view dozens of project presentations and startups each month. Beyond the potential and quality of the research in question, what can make one stand out from the rest?
In order to help entrepreneurs define their pitch and performance through the screen, Biocat and CataloniaBio & HealthTech are launching the E-Pitch Training Program where each project or startup will receive coaching in a personalized way.
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Start-ups and projects that need to improve their virtual presentation to investors and scouts in the life sciences and health sector. The program will help you to know what are the ...
10 July 2020
Esteve and Leitat, CataloniaBio & HealthTech members, have entered into a strategic alliance to create a business incubator specialising in biomedicine, that will have its headquartersin the facilities that Esteve used to occupy in the Barcelona Science Park.
WeLab, the name given to the incubator, will allow Esteve to continue developing its R&D portfolio and have preferential access to the most advanced innovation and technologies in the biomedical field through the Leitat network.
According to Joan Parra, executive vice-president of Leitat, “WeLab will allow us to create a new international player in the future of pharmaceutical research ata moment where ...
10 July 2020
Just a few days after learning about the growing investment figures for 2019 in the life sciences and healthcare sector in Catalonia, the venture capital firms Alta Life Sciences and Asabys, both with headquarters in Barcelona, have announced two rounds in start-ups worth €5.8M.
The Catalan start-up DeepUll, created by Jordi Carrera and Rafael Bru (ex-founders of STAT-Dx), has raised €3.5M to validate their platform for early septicaemia detection. Alta Life Sciences and Kurma Partners led this round.
Furthermore, Origo Biopharma, founded in Galicia by GalChimia and Julio Castro (founder of Palobiofarma) and managed by Ramon Bosser (ex-founder ...