The highly-regarded Transactional Track Record (TTR) has ranked RCD as the leading private equity and venture capital advisor according to the numbers from its 2019 first quarter report in the Iberian market. The firm also placed in the top spots for most active M&A advisors. These numbers continue the trend of recent years.

The RCD team is made up of 300 professionals specialized in 20 areas of legal and sectorial practice as life sciences sector.

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Photo: Partners of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department - © RCD

Transplant Biomedicals, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has completed patient enrolment of the clinical trial of Vivian® device for the transport and preservation of kidneys for transplantation. 

It is a multicenter and prospective study designed to evaluate the safety and performance of Vivian® in 32 patients of Hospital Clínic Barcelona, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Bellvitge University Hospital. Interim results are expected to be available next May and complete results in 1Q 2020.

“Vivian® has the profile of a true game changer in organ preservation market, and our development plan is poised to explore all these opportunities” says Dr. Joan ...

Vytrus Biotech, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, won three awards at the 2019 In-Cosmetics fair held from 2 to 4 April in Paris.

The latest ingredient launched to market by this Terrassa-based company, Olea Vitae, was named the most innovative product of the fair (Innovation Zone Best Active Ingredient Award). The active ingredient is obtained from the stem cells of olive trees and used to combat skin ageing.

In-Cosmetics also recognised the company's work in promoting the sustainability of its active ingredient Sarcoslim Reshape, which helps reduce fat, with the Green Award.

Finally, the publication Cosmetics Design gave the company ...

The Eurecat technology centre, member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, and the Maresme Healthcare Consortium have developed a new medical product that avoids the appearance of prolonged pressure ulcers.

It is a protector with a 3D fabric and sock-like, easy to use, which makes it more comfortable for users than other solutions on the market. It is the brainchild of Dr Jesús Alòs, a vascular surgeon at Mataró Hospital.

Pressure ulcers on the foot are skin lesions caused by the application of constant pressure as a result of reduced mobility on the part of the patient.

CataloniaBio & HealthTech, the Mental Health Cluster of Catalonia and the Food’n Nutrition Cluster held the second Intercluster workshop Nutrition and health: discovering new challenges, on 5 April at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), with roughly forty Catalan companies and organisations. 

The session began with two inspirational conferences by Miquel Ràmia of Made of Genes and Mariona Serra and Sara Ramió of GoodGut, who highlighted that there is a lot to do in both the field of microbiota and genomics applied to nutrition. “The ideal treatment should include reinforcing intestinal microbiota and defining the bacterial signature for each ...

CataloniaBio & HealthTech has launched its third Workgroup (WG) which will focus on identifying internationalisation needs for associated businesses and organisations, as well as sharing experiences and encouraging internationalisation through knowledge transfer and networking.

The Internationalisation WG will be coordinated by Albert Giralt (Avinent) and Alfons Nonell-Canals (Mind the Byte), both of which are board members, with support from Melqui Calzado (secretary general of the association).

A presentation to launch the Workgroup will be held on 26 April at 9.30 am, at the Barcelona Science Park.

CataloniaBioHT also has WGs for Regulatory Affairs and Innovation, both of which have ...

Dr Josep Esteve Soler, former president of Esteve Group and member of the sixth generation of a family of pharmacists, has passed away in Barcelona at the age of 89.

Esteve joined the company very young, in 1953. With a Doctorate in Pharmacy and a Postgraduate Degree in Business Administration and Management from Iese, he took over the management of the company in 1979 and held the presidency, along with his siblings Joan and Montserrat, after the death of his father, Antoni Esteve i Subirana (the founder of Esteve). 

Dr Josep Esteve was the architect of the company's growth ...

Laura Tarrats, a midwife at Hospital Germans Trias, has designed a heating belt to alleviate labour pains, sciatica and other discomforts that arise in the third trimester of pregnancy.

“The need to create this device came out of day-to-day experience. As midwives, we offer ways to comfort women before they can have an epidural or when they want to have a natural birth. One of these is to apply heat locally. The challenge was to keep the heat in these areas while still allowing the mother to move around during the birth,” explains Tarrats, who presented the heating belt ...

NEOS Surgery, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, is one of twenty technology transfer and investment organisations and companies chosen to participate in the Early stage financing of RTO spin-off companies event hosted by the European Commission (EC) to share their innovation and funding experience. The meeting was held on 7 March in the headquarters of EC in Brussels with representatives from the European Investment Fund (EIF-BEI), the Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Tecnalia Ventures, German Tech Transfer Management GmbH, Yeda R&D Company Ltd. of the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), among others.

The presentations were introduced and moderated by ...

Minoryx Therapeutics has appointed Didier Le Normand as group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as well as general manager of its recently opened Belgian subsidiary.

Le Normand started his career in banking in the US and France and then established a long international career in finance and operations as well as M&A transactions for private and listed companies, particularly in the healthcare and technology sectors. He was CFO at STAT-DX, a Catalan diagnostics company solded to Qiagen in 2018.

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Photo: Didier Le Normand - © Minoryx Therapeutics

Anaconda Biomed, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, appointed two new senior executives, Dr Lieven Huysse as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Jordi Cardona that will serve as its new Manufacturing Director.

As Anaconda Biomed’s CMO, Dr. Huysse will lead the implementation of clinical trials of the company’s breakthrough advanced thrombectomy system for the treatment of ischemic stroke. Dr. Huysse brings to the company more than 20 years of senior leadership experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical fields (Intrinsic Therapeutics Inc., Menarini...).

Vidal brings to Anaconda more than 30 years of experience in the medical device field, leading production ...

Public procurement in Catalonia has to overcome various challenges, such as the end goal for medicines, technology and, in general, new healthcare solutions in hospitals. The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Innovation Workgroup brought together six experts from companies, hospitals and legal services for the Hospital Connection event And how do you buy? on 22 February in Barcelona to debate the current framework and how it is expected to change.

New models for the relationship between businesses (supplier) and hospitals (purchaser) must be developed and the imbalance between large corporations and hospitals is a barrier to negotiations, agreed Ferran Rodríguez, head ...

Interview to Jaume Amat, president of CataloniaBio & HealthTech since 2018 and CEO of Specipig:

It has been one year since the merger of CataloniaBio and the HealthTech Cluster. How would the board take stock of the past year?

When we started this new era, we believed that the merger addressed a trend and a real need in the sector resulting from the transversal nature of new healthcare solutions. One year later, we’re more sure of this than ever. As an association, we are much more diverse and, therefore, much richer and with more complimentary assets. We can be proud ...

Banco Sabadell's BStartup has granted more than 200 million euros of funding to startups. The entity has been supporting emerging companies for more than five years, which has led to 2,895 startups becoming customers of the bank. Furthermore, through its investment vehicles BStartup10, Sabadell Venture Capital and InnoCells, the entity now holds a direct stake in 67 companies.

Further proof of Banco Sabadell’s commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem is the presence as a gold partner of 4 Years From Now (4YFN) organised by the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and gold sponsor, for the fifth consecutive year, of the ...

Montserrat Vendrell has been named the new president of the Pompeu Fabra University Board of Trustees (UPF), taking over from Núria Basi, who had held the position since 2008. The board is the body through which society participates in the UPF.

Vendrell is a partner in the venture capital fund Alta Life Sciences, member of the CataloniaBio & HealthTech board of directors and president of the executive committee at the Pasqual Maragall Foundation.

She is the third woman in a row to hold the position of president of the UPF Board of Trustees.

Enantia, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has again succeeded in applying cocrystallisation technology to a new family of compounds, the cannabinoids.

Cannabinoids, especially cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), plays an important role in a number of biochemical pathways. Besides Sativex® and Epidiolex®, the only two approved drugs containing CBD, the potential of cannabinoids to be used to treat a large number of medical conditions is very high as is shown by the number of ongoing clinical trials.

Enantia has developed new cannabinoid cocrystals to allow their purification from complex mixtures (natural and synthetic) and to obtain improved active pharmaceutical ingredients and ...

FreeOx Biotech has taken on AEC Partners as a strategic partner in the company to accelerate development and marketing of its drug to treat brain ischemia. Both companies are members of CataloniaBio & HealthTech.

The priority drug is Ox-01, which is about to begin phase-III clinical trials. AEC Partners analysed the brand positioning, financial needs and expected return. At the same time, negotiations are already under way with potential licensees in various world markets.

Jordi Esclusa, managing partner at AEC Partners, and Nerea Alonso, partner in the Barcelona offices of AEC Partners, explain that “It is highly satisfying to lead ...

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CataloniaBio & HealthTech has given the Biosuccess Award to the Ysios Capital fund for the milestones achieved in 2018 in the healthcare and biomedicine arena in Catalonia, and an honorary award to Antonio Parente recognising his career in business. The awards ceremony was held yesterday at the CataloniaBio & HealthTech Gala Dinner at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site in Barcelona and attended by Catalan Minister of Health Alba Vergés and more than 200 entrepreneurs, executives and investors in the sector.

The panel of judges valued Ysios' investment in the main operations in the sector in 2018 (STAT-Dx ...

CataloniaBio & HealthTech held its ordinary general assembly on the 15 February at the Barcelona Science Park, where the members of the board, the executive team and around 70 members met to share and approve the 2019 action plan, as well as the management report and accounts from financial year 2018. The admission of 24 new partners* was also approved.

On behalf of the board, and in accordance with the bylaws, the participants included Jaume Amat (president), Maribel Bergés (treasurer), Àngel Alonso (secretary) and Melqui Calzado (secretary general of the association).

“The integration of CataloniaBio and the HealthTech Cluster one ...

Aromics, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been awarded with 1,085.659 euros from the European Union for the regulatory preclinics of NAX035 for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma, an aggressive and highly refractory tumor directly related to asbestos exposure.

The financing of Aromics comes through the SME instrument Phase 2 of the Horizon 2020 program, which allows European companies to develop innovative products and services.

The use of asbestos will be definitively banned in the European Union in 2005 but it is a tumour with a long latency period (30 to 40 years from the exposure to the diagnosis ...