The life sciences and healthcare ecosystem in Catalonia has created the Àlex Casta Awards in memory of Dr. Àlex Casta, a renowned professional who left us in December 2018. Àlex had held leadership positions at Biocat, Caixa Capital Risc and UPF Ventures, as well as founding RadisMed.

The aim of this initiative is to promote talent, raise awareness and incentivize entrepreneurship in the sector.

Participation requirements

Start-ups that meet the following requirements may submit their candidacy for the Àlex Casta Awards:

Allergy Therapeutics Ibérica, subsidiary of the British bio-pharmaceutical firm Allergy Therapeutics PLC and member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, has expanded its facilities in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) to conduct SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis tests through the RT-PCR test. Allergy Therapeutics Ibérica also has offices in Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona).

The new laboratory is called ATImmunolab and will be able to conduct up to 200,000 tests per year when it reaches maximum capacity. The project has received financing from the Centre for Technological Industrial Development (CDTI) and from the technological fund of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

PCR is the ...

If you were unable to attend, you can view the recorded event:

Life sciences and healthcare start-ups and companies in Catalonia managed to attract €112M of investment in 2019, a figure that has remained stable for four years in a row and is 3% higher than in 2018, according to the study presented today by CataloniaBio & HealthTech, Biocat and EY. 

Both investors and experts believe this investment to be a prelude to a very promising 2020 for the sector since life sciences and healthcare start-ups in Catalonia have almost met the capital raised in all the rounds of ...

Reig Jofre, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, is one of the three pharmaceutical firms that have been selected by Spanish Ministry of Health to product the future Covid-19 vaccine. 

Reig Jofre has a factory in Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona) that specialises in sterile injectable products and has the capacity to manufacture over 700 million doses per year. Works started on the installations in 2019, and it has brought in investment of €30M, as reported in Cinco Días. The Catalan company has experience in manufacturing animal vaccines.

To tackle the pandemic, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and ...

The European Commission has announced that it will create a European Innovation Council (EIC) investment fund for innovative start-ups and SMEs.

The new fund will provide mixed investment (subsidy and capital) from €0.5M to €15M for companies selected for the EIC Accelerator programme, the successor of SME Instrument.

This is the first time that the EC is making direct capital investment in businesses. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will take charge of managing the shares.

This topic and other specialist financing resources for the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem will be covered in the CEO Council organised by CataloniaBio ...

Devicare and Idneo, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech members, han signat signed a strategic collaboration to develop and manufacture self-testing diagnostic devices.

Devicare will transfer the manufacturing of the Lit-Control® pH Meter device to Idneo. Furthermore, both companies will cooperate in the development of enhanced versions of the device. 

“This agreement will allow our company to scale its manufacturing capabilities and engineering resources with the aim to offer the most reliable technology to our customers, doctors and patients" says Rosendo Garganta, CEO of Devicare.

Patients and doctors use the Lit-Control® pH Meter to periodically measure, in a simple and quick ...

The Government of Catalonia has given the green light for the National Pact for the Knowledge Society (PNSC), which has been a work in progress for the past year, in order to make innovation the core focal point of Catalonia’s economic strategy. The Covid-19 crisis has even further highlighted the importance of research and innovation in responding to emergencies.

The main stakeholders in the Catalan R&D system and social and business worlds have participated in the PNSC, including CataloniaBio & HealthTech representing start-ups and companies in the health and life sciences sector. The health and life sciences sector currently generates ...

Ona Therapeutics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €30-million Series A round of funding with Catalan investment funds Asabys, Alta Life Sciences and Ysios Capital, Belgian FundPlus and French fund BPI France.

Ona Therapeutics was founded in 2019 by IRB Barcelona, ICREA and scientists Salvador Aznar-Benitah and Valerie Vanhooren, with backing from Asabys, which was instrumental in putting together the Series A round. The company is based at the Barcelona Science Park.

"This capital injection gives us the means to develop our biological drug through the first clinical trials in patients with metastatic cancer," says Valerie ...

Grifols, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has announced the start of production of its anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune immunoglobulin with specific antibodies using the plasma of people who have overcome the disease. 

Grifols' anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin is being produced in its Clayton (US) facility as part of a collaboration agreement with US government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), among other healthcare agencies. The company is also moving forward to establish collaborations in Europe.

The first doses will be available in July 2020 as part of a clinical trial in Spain to assess the effectiveness of ...

Almirall, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been selected by the IBEX Technical Advisory Committee to join the IBEX 35, the benchmark stock market index of the Madrid stock exchange (Spain). 

The pharmaceutical company was founded in 1943. In 2017, Almirall refocused its strategy on medical dermatology.

Currently, Almirall has a direct presence in 21 countries through 13 subsidiaries, with more than 1,800 employees. The newest entrant to the IBEX 35 operates an three R&D centres in Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona), Reinbek (Germany) and Exton (USA); and three plants in Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona), Sant ...

Mitelos, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has signed a deal with Faes Farma to market the new OtiFaes Borisec® spray for acute external otitis in Spain.

Also known as “swimmer’s ear”, this conditionis an infection of the skin in the external auditory canal. The main triggering factor is excess moisture remaining after daily hygiene, water sports, excessive sweating, etc. The components of OtiFaes Borisec® dry up excess moisture, encourage proper pH levels and protect the skin ofthe ear canal, all of which helps prevent infection.

This is the third agreement between the companies that has added products to Faes Farma’s ...

The Girona Medical Association, with the Eurecat technology centre and the Stimulo product-design agency, among others, has created a reusable mask that can be equipped with FFP2 or FFP3 filters to ensure the safety of professionals in healthcare and industrial environments during future Covid-19 outbreaks. Both Eurecat and Stimulo are CataloniaBio & HealthTech members.

The mask, called Aleu in honour of Dr Dolors Aleu i Riera, is currently being tested by the Aitex laboratory for approval. 

The goal “is to provide PPE that offers maximum protection, can be recycled and is reusable in order to avoid over-taxing the supply ...

Vice-president of the Government of Catalonia Pere Aragonès and Director General for Research and Innovation in Health Robert Fabregat visited the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) yesterday, where they met with Biocat, CataloniaBio & HealthTech, start-ups and investors to learn about the healthcare and life sciences sector’s potential as a driving force for Catalan innovation and competitiveness after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PCB was represented by CEO Maria Terrades and Biocat, by its CEO, Jordi Naval. Representing CataloniaBioHT at the event were Judit Anido, president of the association and general manager of Mosaic Biomedicals; Jaume Amat, first vice-president of the association ...

Ysios Capital, a venture capital firm based in Barcelona and member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, today announces its third fund with a committed amount of €155 million and a final target size of €200 million.

Throughout its 12 years of experience, Ysios Capital has invested in 26 companies and managed €346 million through three funds: Ysios BioFund I (€65 million), Ysios BioFund II Innvierte (€126 million) and Ysios BioFund III (€155 million) open to new investors.

Ysios BioFund III will invest in up to 15 companies, mainly in Europe, that develop disruptive therapeutic products and platform technologies to address clear ...

Palobiofarma is one of 22 companies that have been given fast-track approval from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) for urgent R&D projects to help tackle Covid-19. The biopharmaceutical company will receive funding from the CDTI through the preclinical phase for a new antiviral compound.

Julio Castro, founder and CEO of Palobiofarma, explained that “his work focuses on designing and developing a drug that inhibits the enzymatic activity of the ACE2 protein and stops respiratory viruses, like SARS-CoV-2, from binding to cells in the respiratory system.”

Castro, along with three other businesspeople, had a video-conference with ...

Aquilino Peña, founding partner of Kibo Ventures, has been appointed as president of the Spanish Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (ASCRI) for the 2020-2022 period. Peña will replace Miguel Zurita, managing partner at Altamar Capital.

Kibo Ventures is a venture capital firm with €115 million in AUM and which has invested in more than 50 high-growth companies. Aquilino Peña has been linked to the digital and tech sector since 1995 and from multiple angles: entrepreneur, operator and investor. 

ASCRI also has appointed four new members to its Board of Directors: Oriol Pinya, founding partner and CEO of Abac ...

Boehringer Ingelheim has acquired two preclinical antibodies from Canadian firm Northern Biologics with the aim of further strengthening its global position in cancer immunology.

The assets acquired from Northern Biologics in this deal are designed to target two aspects of what is known as the tumour microenvironment: stroma, or connective tissue made up of different cell types, and myeloid cells.

The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, although the companies said the agreement includes an upfront payment as well as other potential payments tied to progress of the drug candidates.

Northern Biologics, which has the support of investor Versant ...

The technology Anaxomics has developed based on artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in a ground-breaking study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, which has revealed that the efficacy of malaria vaccines can be predicted using molecular biomarkers. The results have been published in Science Translational Medicine.

Additionally, Anaxomics has also recently worked with the Immunology of Diabetes Group at the Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), which is researching a drug that reprograms pancreatic cells in rats with type-1 diabetes. This drug was selected using AI as the best candidate from a list of ...

Laboratorios Hartmann, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has distributed over 50 million surgical masks in Spain since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They are type II and IIR surgical masks imported from suppliers in Asia that have passed the company’s quality audits and have CE marking.

Hartmann is currently working to help ease the lockdown, providing healthcare systems, care homes, chemists, etc. with masks, virucidal hand sanitisers (Sterillium) and protective gloves (Peha-fol).

Since February, Hartmann has increased production capacity by 20% at its two plants in Mataró and Montornès de Vallès (Barcelona).

More information (in Spanish)

This week Ferrer has presented the second edition of Ferrer 4 Future to respond three new innovation challenges: care for patients with movement disorders, reduction of dependence in patients with cognitive behavioural disorders, and support for finding the optimal dose of analgesia in patients with chronic pain.

The initiative invites start-ups and companies to develop health solutions through the use of novel technologies. The call is open until 28 August, 2020.

Olga Fidalgo, Chief Scientific and Business Development Officer of Ferrer, explains Ferrer's commitment to a model of open innovation in digital health began two years ago: "We are convinced ...