Idneo, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, will hire one hundred engineers this year, under the slogan Are you an engineer or a Dreammaker?. This new talent will join the company mainly at its headquarters in Mollet del Vallès (Barcelona), but also at its offices in Silicon Valley (United States) and in-company with its clients.

The new engineers will cover high value-added positions in sectors like medical technology, mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT) and will take part in cutting-edge projects for companies that are global benchmarks.

“It is a great opportunity to be part of a unique technology company ...

Inveready has finished the fundraising period for its new technology fund, First III, putting together a total of €54 million, nine more than the original goal, in just six months.

This fund will allow the firm to continue investing in technology-based start-ups with a high component of innovation (biotechnology, artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, etc.). Occasionally, it will also invest in B2C projects with potential for growth.

Ignacio Fonts, managing partner at Inveready, explains that the new fund “will help us diversify our portfolio and accompany our participated companies in later rounds of funding.”

With this ...

Dr Marisa López-Teijón, creator of the BabyPod technological device and CEO of Institut Marquès, a global benchmark in assisted reproduction and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, is looking for investors to tackle the next phases of the R&D project. 

BabyPod is the first small-format intravaginal device that uses music to stimulate vocalisation of babies before birth. The product was created through a line of research conducted by Dr López-Teijón on the effects of music from the beginning of life, which has conducted several scientific studies and been recognised by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The product ...

iVascular, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, launches the open innovation program innoVasc aimed at start-ups in the biomedical field and health.

Marc Amorós, Head of Innovation at iVascular, says "we want to promote innovation and transform vascular therapies to provide our customers with advanced treatments for the diseases of the cardiovascular system". 

Specifically, proposals, approaches, solutions and ideas for vascular therapies from the following areas of interest:

The deadline for participation is until August 30, 2019.

iVascular was founded ...

Pharmacelera, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member that provides solutions for computer-aided drug design, has reached an agreement with the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona to perform a research project in the area of Parkinson based in the alpha-synucleic protein.

"The in silico selection technologies will be a key complement to our experimental approach" Dr Salvador Ventura, director of IBB-UAB, points out. 

Pharmacelera's CEO Enric Gibert explains "we are sure that our flagship software PharmScreen® will play a key role in proposing new candidates for the treatment of Parkinson's disease."

Esteve, the ...

Asabys Partners, a venture capital fund created in Barcelona in early 2019, has announced its first investments: €1.5 million in spin-off Ona Therapeutics and €8 million in Psious, a round co-led by Caixa Capital Risc with participation from other investors, including Sabadell Venture Capital.

With this funding, Ona Therapeutics will begin development of a new drug to treat metastatic cancer, while Psious will complete development of its virtual reality solution to treat anxiety disorders.

Asabys has kicked off with €30 million in committed capital, although its goal is to put together €70 million to invest in roughly 15 biomedical ...

At its annual shareholders’ meeting, Grifols announced a €1,400 million capital investment plan through 2022. 66% will be allotted to the Bioscience Division, 10% to the Diagnostic Division and 3% to the Hospital Division. The company's manufacturing facilities in Spain will receive more than €300 million.

The biotech group has invested more than €1,370 million in R&D projects over the last five years, including the AMBAR clinical trial against Alzheimer's.

Grifols' co-CEO Raimon Grífols Roura underscored the vital role of its global talent pool: "In 2018, we expanded our workforce by 16% to 21,230 employees, of which ...

Devicare, a digital therapeutics company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, is looking to speed growth and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise €1.5 million through the Capital Cell platform. In just one week, the company has raised 39% of its goal.

Devicare has developed a non-surgical treatment for renal lithiasis or kidney stones, called Lit-Control®, and has closed commercial deals in 30 countries with various pharmaceutical companies. The latest market they’ve entered is the United States, this May, under the framework of the American Urological Association 2019 Annual Meeting (AUA).

“We’re innovating in the field of ...

CataloniaBio & HealthTech and the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC), the largest association of medical technology companies in the United States, have signed an agreement to foster innovation and collaborations in business and research among their members. The agreement was signed at the highly successful European investment congress Bio€quity, held in Barcelona on 20 and 21 May.

Angel Alonso, vice-president of CataloniaBioHT and CEO of Vecmedical, explained that this agreement will “strengthen institutional ties and provide a good opportunity to bring the innovative companies of CataloniaBioHT to the world’s top biomedical ecosystem.”

For his part, MassMEDIC President Bryan ...

Manremyc, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member that has developed a tuberculosis probiotic, has opened a crowdfunding round to raise €250,000 through Capital Cell. So far, the company has raised 37% of its goal, including investment from the Reig family (main shareholder of the pharmaceutical corporation Reig Jofre).

Manremyc is a spin-off of the Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP). The technology prevents people from contracting tuberculosis using a natural product, administered orally that is suitable for regions with high incidence rates and limited resources. This is why the company has been B Corp certified since ...

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Companies in the health and biomedicine sector generate return that goes beyond just economics, as their goal is to benefit the patients their drugs and therapeutic solutions are intended for, but they can emphasise whether social return on investment (SROI) is part of their mission.

Both in Europe and the United States, SROI is a growing trend that is aligned with society’s growing demand for a more sustainable, socially responsible world.

CataloniaBio & HealthTech put this up for debate at the latest Lessons Learned forum on 9 May at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), with investors, accelerators and ...

Hartmann Spain presented two innovative solutions at the 2019 Spanish National Congress of Hospitals and Health Management, held 8 to 10 May in Santiago de Compostela. These were the Cooper Plan to optimise surgical processes and the PrevenIRAS Plan to prevent healthcare-related infections. These products are part of the digital hub created by the company at the corporate headquarters in Mataró (Barcelona), according the newspaper Expansión.

The subsidiary of the German Hartmann group recently appointed Jordi Guinovart as its new general manager, replacing Marc Pérez Pey, who has been named vice-president for Western Europe and Northern Africa.

Hartmann Spain ...

Six CataloniaBio & HealthTech companies participated in a mission to China and Hong Kong organised by ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia) from 11 to 18 May.

Anagram, Cytes Biotechnologies, Drug Development and Regulation (DDR), Eignapharma, Freeox Biotech and Laboratorios Rubió, plus the Catalan Ministry of Health, explored the Chinese healthcare market to assess opportunities to expand there. They also participated in the Health Industry Summit in Shanghai, which brings together more than 300,000 professionals each year.

ACCIÓ is currently setting up new missions to Denmark (September) and Latin America (October).

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Bionure, CataloniaBio & HealhtTech member, has launched a crowdfunding campaign through the Spanish platform of Capital Cell with the objective of raising €1.3M that will be used to finance the preparation of the Phase 2 study of its neuroprotectant BN201.

BN201 is a drug for the treatment of Acute Optic Neuritis (AON) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), for which there are still high unmet medical needs.

The Catalan company has appointed Dr Lucia Septién-Vélez as new chief medical officer (CMO), reinforcing the team at a turning point for the company that plans to start a Phase 2 clinical study. She ...

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The global biomedical market is in the midst of a period of stable growth and Catalonia, one of the most dynamic healthcare hubs in the world, is also enjoying this trend. 2018 was a positive year for the Catalan biomedical business fabric, in terms of funding, R&D alliances and advances, and launching new drugs and medical technology.

Biomedical companies in Catalonia raised a joint total of €106 million in investment in 53 operations, up 1.9% from 2017, according to the Study on investment in the Biomedical industry in Catalonia by CataloniaBio & ...

Roche Diabetes Care and Hospital de Granollers have signed a shared-risk agreement to provide patients with type-1 diabetes the latest technology for measuring glucose levels (Eversense XL).

The contract was facilitated by HiTT, a consultancy that specialises in transferring innovation to patients and a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member.

"Shared-risk agreements are being seen as solutions for getting technology to patients in which everyone wins: patients, healthcare providers and innovation developers," explains Oriol Solà-Morales, CEO of HiTT.

Photo: Lisa Huse, manager Roche Diabetes Spain; Dr Rafael Lledó, general manager of Hospital de Granollers, and Oriol Solà-Morales.

The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Internationalisation Workgroup (WG) held its first meeting on 26 April at the Barcelona Science Park with roughly twenty biopharmaceutical, medical technology and digital health companies and start-ups.

7.9% of exports from Catalonia are in the healthcare and life sciences sector, according to data from 2018. To explain the business opportunities available in new countries, this first session featured Clàudia Danesi, manager of International Public Procurement and Technical Offices at ACCIÓ, and Leyre Alonso, International Strategy Consultant for the same organisation, sharing their experiences. The Government of Catalonia Agency for Business Competitiveness currently has 40 offices ...

GoodGut has signed an agreement with Palex Medical to start selling its new non-invasive diagnostic tests RAID-Dx for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and RAID-Monitor for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Spain. Both are CataloniaBio & HealthTech members.

These are the first products developed by GoodGut to reach the patient after ten years of R&D and clinical validation with internationally prestigious digestive system researchers and gastroenterologists. They are all based on patented technology that detects a specific strain of bacteria for each of the pathologies in a faeces sample.

Palex is Spain’s leading company in the field of diagnosing and monitoring ...

After rising 120,000 euros in the seed capital round through crowdfunding, Mimetis Biomaterials is looking for partners to join its third round of investment for €2 milion (800,000 euros are covered by a Phase 2 SME Instrument grant).

Mimetis  provides the medical sector with a new generation of synthetic bone graft substitutes able to interplay with the host tissue to reach clinical success (MimetikOss). The company located in the Parc Tecnològic del Vallès (Barcelona) is fundraising now to enter the othopaedics market and launch its 3D-printed perzonalised bone regenerative solution. 

Enquiries: investors@mimetis.com

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If ...

Sagetis Biotech, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, granted an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialise its polymeric coating technology Viroshield™ to French company Aratinga.

This technology is able to modify the behavior of oncolytic viruses, improving their therapeutic effect by different means.

Sagetis Biotech is also developing novel SAG-101, a polymer-coated adenovirus for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. It received orphan designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2017.

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Photo: Eduard Diviu, CEO of Sagetis Biotech