Inveready, a Barcelona-based venture capital management company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has set up its first fund with private capital (family offices and banks) targeting growing small and medium-sized enterprises.

GAEA Inversió hopes to raise €110 million to invest in 10 companies valued between €5 million and €75 million with investments between €2 million and €20 million.

The GAEA team is made up of Inveready partners Josep Maria Echarri and Carlos Conti (read their interview in El Economista), with Ramon Resa as Director of Investment (previously at PWC).

Echarri, who has been involved in benchmark operations like IPOs at ...

Digital-health start-up Mediktor, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has signed a deal with Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) to bring its artificial intelligence-based technology to assess symptoms to the US market. 

YNHHS will integrate the Mediktor medical assistant into the digital front door of the five hospitals it manages, so patients can input their symptoms and get a clinically validated diagnosis in just few minutes. They can also schedule a telemedicine appointment with professionals at the centre at the same time.

The deal got the go ahead from Dr Peter Schulam, YNHHS head of Innovation. Oscar García-Esquirol, CMO and ...

Almirall, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has announced the agreement to acquire Bioniz Therapeutics, Inc. based in Irvine (California, US) for €55 million. 

Bioniz is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that develops first-in-class peptide treatments that selectively inhibit multiple cytokines to treat immuno-inflammatory diseases and T-cell malignancies.

Bioniz' lead product candidate, BNZ-1, has completed Phase I Single Ascending Dose (SAD) and Multiple Ascending Dose (MAD) clinical trials and is currently in Phase I/IIa clinical development in Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma (CTCL).

Bhushan Hardas, Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall, commented that “this agreement is a big step forward for us ...

Esteve, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, ended 2019 with the sale of its generics division and kicked off 2020 with the acquisition of German pharmaceutical company Riemser. 

With its headquarters in Berlin and geographical presence in four countries (Germany, United Kingdom, France and Spain), Riemser has a diversified portfolio of products with the three main therapeutic areas being: oncology, neurology and niche therapies. Over 80% of sales come from the hospital channel.

Esteve CEO Staffan Schüberg said, "This acquisition makes Esteve much more of an international proprietary, specialty pharma company, and opens the door to the growing hospital sector." ...

Ergon Capital has announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Palex Medical, the leading distributor of innovative MedTech equipment for hospitals in Spain and Portugal, for €150 million. Palex is a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member.

Palex CEO Xavier Carbonell said, “Ergon is the right partner for our new phase in which we look forward to pursuing further growth opportunities in Spain and abroad.”

Pablo Álvarez Couso, director at Ergon Spain, emphasised the excellent talent and visionary management team, and their support for the future expansion.

Founded in 1955 by the Knuth family, Palex is headquartered in Sant Cugat ...

Aromics Biotech, a CataloniaBio &  HealthTech member, and its Bermes project have been chosen to participate in the exhibition The fight against asbestos organised by Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB).

The exhibition will be on through mid-January at Espai Mercè Sala in the Diagonal metro station.

Aromics, led by Dr Carme Plasencia, is developing the drug NAX035 to treat malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the type of cancer caused by direct exposure to asbestos. It is aggressive, difficult to give a prognosis for and currently has very few therapeutic options.

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Aortyx, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been awarded a €250,000 grant through the Neotec 2019 programme that the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness holds annually to support the creation and consolidation of technology-based companies. In this year’s call, the programme is awarding a total of 96 grants.

Set up in 2018 by researchers at the IQS School of Engineering and Hospital Clinic Barcelona (Jordi Martorell, Noemí Balà, Salvador Borrós and Vincenç Riambau), Aortyx is working to provide a new generation of endovascular devices to treat aortic diseases, in response to unmet medical needs. The company’s technology focuses ...

Ana Polanco, Market Access and Corporate Affairs director at Merck Spain, has been voted president of the Spanish Bioindustry Association (Asebio) for the upcoming two-year term, taking over from Jordi Martí. The members voted on 18 December at the association’s general assembly.

Also voted in were Vice-presidents Belén Barreiro, general director of Ingenasa; Elena Pérez, CEO of A4Cell; and Javier Terriente, CSO of ZeClinics. The voting members of the board of directors are Rocío Arroyo of Amadix, Nora Alonso of Iden Biotechnology, Carmen Eibe of Pharma Mar, Antonio López of Science & Innovation Link Office, and Gurutz Linazasoro of Vive ...

Neos Surgery, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has donated Cranial LOOP devices to the Doctor Clavel Foundation, an initiative of neurosurgeon Pablo Clavel and his team that does charity work with hospitals in developing countries to encourage the study of diseases of the brain and spinal cord.

The foundation’s main project is at Adama Hospital Medical College, in the capital of the most populated region of Ethiopia. This year, the Doctor Clavel Foundation has organised five medical expeditions to perform surgeries to implant the Cranial LOOP device in several patients.

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Esteve, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, announced that the Japanese company Towa Pharmaceutical will acquire 100% ownership of its generics division (Pensa Investments). The purchase price of Pensa will be an all cash deal with an upfront payment of 320 million euros.

As part of its strategic plan, Esteve is focusing its business on proprietary products and areas of specialised medicine. 

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Photo: Staffan Schüberg, CEO at Esteve - © Esteve

ZeClinics, a CRO and CataloniaBio & HealTech member, has been chosen to participate in the Reanima project led by the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) to research new strategies to activate the regenerative functions of the heart. The initiative has a budget of €8 million from the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme and will last five years.

ZeClinics will be working with ten top-notch centres, including King's College London (United Kingdom), the University of Bern (Switzerland) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).

Zebrafish as an animal model

Fish and amphibians are able to regenerate their hearts ...

For the second year running, Banco Sabadell has won Europe's Corporate Startup Stars (Open Innovation category), promoted by the European Commission to recognise companies that support and collaborate with start-ups. Yolanda Pérez, director of BStartup, accepted the award at the gala ceremony held on 11 December at the Madrid Stock Exchange.

In all, 12 companies were recognised, including Google for Startups, Nestlé, Pfizer and Vodafone.

Developing new digital solutions and digitising operations are two of Banc Sabadell's priorities for the digital transformation and a model based on personal service and proximity.

BStartup and CataloniaBio & HealthTech work together to promote ...

Anaxomics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has moved to new offices on Carrer de la Diputació in Barcelona ahead of expected growth over the coming three years. The bioinformatics company also has offices in Lausanne (Switzerland) and London (United Kingdom).

In 2019, Anaxomics sales were up 60% (from revenue of €465,000 in 2018) and it now has a portfolio of over 70 clients, including large pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, Sobi, UCB, etc.) and hospitals (Clinic, Dotze d’Octubre, Germans Trias i Pujol, Vall d’Hebron, etc.). The bioinformatics company has a staff of 25 professionals and expects to hire new ...

RCD has agreed to integrate within the legal business DWF. Currently, DWF operates globally and employs more than 3,200 professionals with recorded revenue of £272 million year. RCD becomes the Spanish office of the global firm DW

This move marks the next step in the growth of both firms. The new entity will be branded as DWF RCD and both Adolf Rousaud and Ignasi Costas, founders of RCD and Co-Managing Partners, have been appointed as members in the Executive Committee for Continental Europe. Furthermore, as a well-known expert in innovation and life sciences, Ignasi Costas has been invited to ...

Grifols, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, concluded more than a year of encouraging results of its AMBAR (Alzheimer Management by Albumin Replacement) clinical trial with the presentation of new neuroimaging data that show the reduction in the progression of the disease in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

These findings, released at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease Conference 2019 on 6 December in San Diego (USA), strengthen Grifols’ investigative approach using plasma protein replacement therapies.

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Anaconda Biomed, a medical technology company developing next-generation thrombectomy systems for the treatment of ischemic stroke, has closed €20 million in new investment. The funding will be used for clinical studies, regulatory submissions in international markets, further product development and manufacturing scale-up.

Asabys Partners led the round from its fund, Sabadell Asabys, with participation from existing investors Ysios Capital, Omega Funds and Innogest, as well as Sabadell Venture Capital.

Anaconda Biomed is a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member. In 2018, the company founded by Ofir Arad and Marc Ribó, won the Biosuccess Award.

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Innovation, nutrition, private healthcare, supercomputing, 5G and rare diseases were the focus of the debates at the 2019 UnConference hosted by CataloniaBio & HealthTech on 28 November at Masia de Sant Pere de Clarà in Argentona (Barcelona). The second annual event brought together over 50 executives and entrepreneurs to reflect on the future of solutions for healthcare.

"There are small companies and large companies that have to start working together to add more value to the medical solution they offer. We have to work together to transform the sector, with shared leadership, and looking 10 years out,” ...

Laboratorios Rubió, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, will market a non-invasive test to detect non-alcoholic fatty liver and related diseases. The new test is called OWLiver® and has been developed by the biotech firm OWL.

OWLiver® is precise, non-invasive and cheaper than other techniques such as ultrasound or magnetic resonance. OWLiver® is based on the lipidomic analysis of the patients’ blood serum.

With this agreement for Spain and Latin America, Laboratorios Rubió has strengthened its position in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and metabolomics.

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Do you want to know more Laboratorios Rubió? We recommend this video ...

MJN Neuroserveis, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member that has developed the first non-invasive medical device to detect the risk of epileptic seizures, won second prize at the 11th IoT / WT Innovation World Cup.

The competition took place at the Medica 2019 fair, held 19 to 21 November in Düsseldorf (Germany). MJN was competing against 16 international finalists. The winning company was Medicsens from Madrid, with its personalised device that simulates the functions of the pancreas.

In addition to the prizes, it is worth noting that MJN has added social return on investment (SROI) to its mission.

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Pharmaceutical company Hartmann and the Eurecat technology centre, both CataloniaBio & HealthTech members, have come up with the idea for a smart dressing that can detect bacterial infections in the wound underneath.

The most disruptive element of the project is that it features a sensor in the dressing to monitor, in real time, the progress of the wound, just by looking at the colour.

The project has been funded by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).

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