Maria Fátima Lucas, co-founder and CEO of the Barcelona-based start-up Zymvol Biomodeling, is one of the four winners of 2020 EU Prize for Women Innovators. She will receive a €100,000 cash prize.

During the European Research and Innovation Days on 24 September, commissioner for Innovation and Research Mariya Gabriel revealed the winners chosen by a jury of independent experts. 

The other recognised women are Madiha Derouazi, founder and CEO of Amal Therapeutics (Switzerland), Arancha Martínez, co-founder and managing director of It Will Be (Spain) and Josefien Groot, co-founder and CEO of Qlayers (Netherlands).

Zymvol Biomodeling was founded in ...

Two active ingredients from Vytrus Biotech, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, have been recognised with the 2020 Best Ingredient Award, given out annually at the top international cosmetics fair: In-Cosmetics Global. The ceremony was streamed live online on 6 October.

These awards recognise innovation in raw materials in the cosmetics industry. From Vytrus, the winning ingredients are Kannabia Sense and Deobime Noni, for their science, mechanisms of action and the market need they address.

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Inveready, a venture capital management firm and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed its first vehicle, Inveready Seed Capital SCR, after 11 years with returns of €100 million.

Inveready Seed Capital was created to invest in early-stage technology companies and, in total, the fund has participated in 35 firms, 40% in the healthcare and life sciences sector. The life sciences portfolio out-performed investment five-fold.

“We are very pleased with the return on this fund, one of the sector's most successful in Europe, as well as its social and economic impact,” notes Inveready President Josep Maria Echarri. 

The fund ...

Kymos Pharma, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) and member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, has bought German company Prolytic GmbH in order to strengthen its activity in the biologics and advanced therapies market. The company previously acquired Italian firm Pharmaprogress in 2016.

"This strategic merger gives us the opportunity to increase our service offering, strengthen the emerging therapies market and create a multinational and multidisciplinary company. We are very much looking forward to this new phase in the company’s history", says Joan Puig de Dou, co-founder and CEO of Kymos Pharma.

From now on, Kymos' services will be for innovative small and ...

Aortyx, spin-off of the IQS School of Engineering, has won the first annual Àlex Casta Awards for best pitch in the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem in Catalonia. The competition took place today at the presentation of the 2020 BioRegion of Catalonia Report, compiled by Biocat and CataloniaBio & HealthTech.

The other start-ups that competed as finalists were Ona Therapeutics, Glycardial Diagnostics, Able Human Motion and Pebble Analytics.

Founded by Jordi Martorell, Salvador Borrós and Vicenç Riambau, head of Vascular Surgery at Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Aortyx is developing a new generation of grafts to repair blood vessels.

“I hope these ...

PHOTOS

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...