Amgen Iberia, the subsidiary of biotechnology multinational corporation Amgen and a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, increased its staff by 11% in 2018, for a total of 300 employees, after launching a new biosimilars unit, according to L’Econòmic. The company notes that these employees are highly qualified and that they promote equal pay for women and men.

Amgen first began working in Spain in 1990. Currently, the company has nearly 80 clinical trials under way in its various therapeutic areas and invests €18 million in R&D. Its drugs are used to treat serious diseases in cardiology, nephrology, oncohaematology and bone ...

The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Innovation Workgroup (WG) was officially launched on the 7th of February at the Barcelona Science Park with the active participation of around fourty biopharmaceutical, medical technology, and digital health companies and start-ups, hospitals and technological centres. 

The coordination team, made up of Àngel Alonso (Vecmedical), Isabel Amat (Reig Jofre), Ferran Rodríguez (Hospital Clínic), and Eduard Valentí (Esteve), with the support of Melqui Calzado (secretary general), explained the purpose of this WG and then started the first joint working session to identify the topics of interest which shall be addressed in the forthcoming months.

With ...

usMIMA, a start-up that specialises in designing and selling medical devices to combat chronic constipation, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise €400,000 on the Capital Cell platform. It is a bridge round, currently led by Genesis Ventures with €50,000, which will lead into a Series A round in late 2019.

The first product the company has developed is called Mowoot, a device that stimulates intestinal transit naturally, based on a clear need, identified by patients and doctors. Chronic constipation affects 250 million people around the world, but there are few innovative solutions on the market.

With this ...

4D Health, a health innovation and simulation centre and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has launched its new 4dhealth.com website to raise awareness of its personalised services for companies and hospitals.

The web has three sections: what the centre does, professional training using simulation to increase safety when treating patients, and services for companies associated with training projects for clinical professionals and sales teams, as well as innovation in product development and testing.

“We facilitate and act as a liaison for joint initiatives in the healthcare and business arenas,” explains Franc Espinar, head of projects and operations for 4D ...

The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Regulatory Affairs Workgroup (WG) held its second Hard Reg Café event on 4 February at ACCIÓ. The event was coordinated by Lidia Cánovas (Asphalion) and Lluís Chico (NEOS Surgery) and aimed to nail down the topics of interest identified at the first Hard Reg Café session and discuss the best way to tackle them. 

These themes are implementing the new European medical device regulations and raising awareness and encouraging practical use of the Expedited Pathways.

After a two-hour debate, the companies agreed that, first, notified bodies must be more available and, secondly, the clinical ...

Fertypharm, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, is one of the thirty business and social initiatives recognised in the Icon Group’s Go Health Awards 2019. 

These awards aim to promote talent, innovation and entrepreneurship through the value chain (research, manufacturing, distribution, patient care, etc.), in the public and private sectors.

Fertypharm has won second prize in the Retail / OTC Laboratory category as a new business project. Founded by Roberto Costillas and José Ángel Delpueyo, the Esplugues de Llobregat-based company develops innovative fertility and pregnancy products.

The panel of judges was comprised of top executives from the sector, including Jesús Acebillo ...

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The Mental Health Cluster of Catalonia, CataloniaBio & HealthTech and the Food Nutrition Cluster, with collaboration from ACCIÓ, have pooled more than 50 companies for an intercluster event on the new challenges in nutrition and health.

Palau Marianao in Sant Boi de Llobregat hosted the first of three workshops in this programme on 24 January. The session began with a presentation from each of the cluster managers: Marta Sánchez Bret, Melqui Calzado and Eva Olivera.

The aim of this intercluster is to find solutions to the needs identified previously by three complementary sectors: biomedicine, mental health and nutrition ...

Stimulo, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and a midwife at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Vanessa Bueno, have designed a postural cushion for pregnant women that corrects the malposition of the fetal head during labor. 

At the time of delivery, the fetus needs to face head down. But, in about 40% of women, the fetus is facing up. If this incorrect position is not corrected, it is necessary to perform a caesarean section or use forceps. 

The origin of this idea is found in a clinical trial carried out by Vanessa Bueno on how to facilitate ...

Kiversal, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member company that specialises in the Internet of Things (IoT), is one of the first companies to use the new User Experience Lab (UXLab) service offered by Barcelona Activa. Specifically, the company has assessed the ease of use of the Audixi 10 audiometer it is developing.

UXLab is designed for start-ups and SMEs to test products, both physical and digital, before they go on the market. UXLab also allows companies to validate their ideas using techniques like neuromarketing and eyetracking to discover the emotions involved in the purchase process, as reported Europa Press. In some ...

CataloniaBio & HealthTech has launched a new Innovation Workgroup (WG) to share new business models and synergies that are coming up with solutions in health, facilitate public-private partnerships, discover unmet needs of patients and hospital care, and align the innovation going on in technology and biopharmaceutical companies with hospitals.

In order to give companies and hospitals the opportunity to express their concerns, propose activities and participate in executing them, a presentation will be held on 7 February at the Barcelona Science Park.

“The WG will be stronger with a participative format, so the launch has been designed to use teamwork ...

Esteve and the Neuropharmacology Group of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) are beginning the Ribopain project to identify and validate new therapeutic targets for neuropathic pain. The initiative has received funding in the Retos 2017 call by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. 

Its principal investigators will be José Miguel Vela, Director of Drug Discovery & Preclinical Development at Esteve, and Rafael Maldonado and Miquel Martin of UPF.

19% of the adult European population suffers from moderate to severe pain. Neuropathic pain, which is the most refractory to treatment, appears as a result of a traumatic or degenerative ...

Asphalion, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has inaugurated new offices in Barcelona after 18 years working as a scientific and regulatory affairs consultancy firm. The company's new headquarters are at Carrer de Tarragona 151, right by the Sants train station.

"We're very happy with the change and aware that, now more than ever, we can provide more and better services for drug development and regulatory affairs to pharma, biotech and medical device companies," explains Lidia Cánovas, Asphalion general manager for Regulatory Affairs and member of the CataloniaBio & HealthTech board.

Asphalion also has offices in Madrid and Munich. The ...

Minoryx Therapeutics, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has created a fully owned subsidiary in Belgium. The new office, located in Brussels South Biopark (Charleroi) is due to launch operations this month.

The Belgian subsidiary will leverage the local biotech ecosystem to lead the research and development of MIN-102 in new orphan central nervous system (CNS) indications and will play an important role in the development of the company. 

Minoryx is recruiting several R&D positions for its Belgian site and headquarters in Tecnocampus Maresme-Mataró (Barcelona).

The company recently completed a €21,3 million Series B funding round led by the ...

Senolytic Therapeutics, a biotech company in the Life Biosciences group with offices in Boston and Barcelona, is the focus of a report in the Financial Times on how longevity and treatments for age-related illnesses are being promoted.

Life Biosciences was created in 2017 by David A. Sinclair, a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and the investor Tristan Edwards.

Senolytic develops novel classes of medicines that target and eliminate damaged cells (senescent). The researchers believe, and have proven in pre-clinical trials, that de-constructing these zombie cells will offset the adverse effects of ageing. The company ...

Institut Marquès, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has launched a programme of scientific studies on semen quality in various countries, as nearly 17% of couples have sterility issues and the male partner is involved in more than 50% of these cases. 

The first study was conducted in Spain in 2004 and others have begun recently in Italy and Ireland.

After analysing semen samples from one thousand Spanish men, scientists saw that the factors commonly attributed to poor semen quality (stress, alcohol, etc.) are a myth and that the origin of the problem is chemical toxins. These substances, which take ...

The Genesis Ventures fund, managed by Genesis Biomed, has invested a total of €325,000 in five start-ups, spin-offs and projects in the biomedical field during its first year of existence.

As Josep Lluís Falcó, founder and CEO of Genesis Biomed, explains “we have shown our commitment to projects in early phases, providing our investment and know-how in order to add value to these projects”.

During 2019, Genesis Ventures aims to invest in 10 more projects or companies to complete its €1.2 million investment fund. The tickets vary between €50,000 to €100,000 per investment.

Genesis Biomed is ...

AstraZeneca has announced organisational changes to support continued scientific innovation and commercial success in the main therapy areas as the company enters a new phase in its strategic development.

Included in the changes will be the arrival of the world-renowned oncology scientist, Josep Baselga. He was most recently Physician-in-Chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to this, he was Associate Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Founding Director of the Vall d‘Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) in Barcelona.

Currently, AstraZeneca is focused in three therapy areas: oncology; cardiovascular; renal, metabolism and respiratory. In Barcelona, the biopharmaceutical ...

The Barcelona Science Park (PCB) closed the activities to celebrate its 20th anniversary with an institutional event chaired by the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias, on December 21.

The event was attended by more than one hundred people from the worlds of academia, science, business and government. "The PCB is an absolutely exceptional concentration of talent that contributes to creating value in our city and in our country" said Elias.

The PCB is one of Europe's leading scientific, technological and business innovation ecosystems. Currently it has a surface area of 100,000 square metres and a community ...

Devicare and nine leading Spanish hospitals in urology have successfully completed the clinical trial which demonstrates the efficacy of the combined use of a medical device (Lit-Control® pH Meter) and a nutraceutical (Lit-Control® pH Down) to prevent the encrustation of double J catheters by monitoring urinary pH and supplying phytates (crystallisation inhibitors).

The results of this pioneering study at the international level will be presented in the Meeting of the Spanish Association of Urology in January in Palma de Mallorca and in the European Association of Urology Congress in March in Barcelona in front of more than 10,000 urologists ...

GlyCardial Diagnostics have received €1.9 million of the SME Instrument phase II funding, in the framework of H2020 programme, to advance in the development of its novel test for the early detection of cardiac ischemia.

"So amazing to have it approved in our first trial. It is highly motivating to see that the EU trusts in our project as much as we do" says Dr Judit Cubedo, CEO at Glycardial.

Founded in 2017 by Prof Lina Badimon, Dr Judit Cubedo, Dr Teresa Padró and Dr Gemma Vilahur, Glycardial is a spin-off of the Research Institute of the Hospital ...