The startup Pharmacelera, a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, will open a branch in the United States in early 2023 with the help of an investor from Silicon Valley. Its goal is to focus on this market as a strategic area to multiply its sales by 5 in the next 3 years.

The QLattice^® discovery engine developed by Abzu^® has accelerated scientific exploration and understanding again, this time for Peptomyc^®, a biotech focused on inhibiting the cancer-causing protein Myc. Both companies are CataloniaBio & HealthTech members.

Exheus, company specialising in RNA analysis, a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, has secured a 900,000 euro funding round. The investment will help it to start its international expansion.

If the Lessons Learned sessions are a forum for exchanging experiences and thoughts, the one on 22 November was one of the clearest examples at the Parc Científic de Barcelona. It focused on sharing experiences around auditing processes for medical devices. Medical device audits can be a headache for medical device developers and manufacturers, so it is key to know exactly what the audit requirements are for international markets, who will enforce them, when and how. A medical device audit is a systematic and documented process, can be performed both announced and unannounced by notified bodies and government agencies, but must also be implemented internally as part of the company's ongoing regulatory obligations.

Perdigó, a design and engineering house for medical products, equipment, and technology, and a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, announced it is sponsoring this year’s Drug Delivery to the Lungs (DDL2022) conference being held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 7th to 9th December 2022.

The presence of metastases is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Despite advances in targeted cancer therapies, blocking the formation of metastases is still an unmet therapeutic need. A study led by the biotech company BCN Peptides and the Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders group at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), both CataloniaBio & HealthTech members, has demonstrated the efficacy of a new drug, the synthetic peptide RA08, to reduce the formation of metastases in childhood and breast cancer. The work has been published in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences.

SpliceBio, a Barcelona-based biotech company in gene therapy, is a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech. The company is based on technology from Princeton University and has received the award for "Series A Investment Round of the Year in Europe" at the European LifeStars Awards organised by LSX (Life Science eXecutive partnering community).

The company is responsible for developing a new diagnostic method for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a respiratory disease that hampers air from entering the lungs. Antoni Rosell, Clinical Director of the Thorax Department of the Germans Trias Hospital, is mover of the project.

The ecosystem of life and health sciences in Catalonia is rich and spread throughout the territory, whether from the point of view of industrial potential, the various public centres and hospitals that generate knowledge in the sector or the capacity for investment. The Girona region has a growing cluster in the health sector and CataloniaBio & HealthTech has organised a conference to highlight this reality.

MinoryxTherapeutics, CataloniaBio& HealthTech member, alate-stage biotech company focused on the development of treatments for orphancentral nervous system (CNS) disorders and the Neuraxpharm Group (“Neuraxpharm”), a leading European specialty pharmaceutical companyfocused on CNS therapies, announced the completion of a strategic licenseagreement.

Professionals from the Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí, in Sabadell, shared clinical needs identified in their daily work in healthcare with companies and startups from CataloniaBio & HealthTech. It was held on the afternoon of 2 November, in the Auditorium of the Hospital Parc Taulí. The conference is promoted by CataloniaBio & HealthTech and it had the collaboration of the Parc Taulí Institute for Research and Innovation (I3PT) and ITEMAS.

The pandemic has put the health sector at the centre in many respects and has given it a new relevance. It has also brought to the table issues such as redefining industrialisation and innovation, an issue that centered the UnConference in 2021, and digital transformation, which has been the focus of debate at this year's edition, held at La Salle Campus Barcelona.

Syna Therapeutics, a joint venture of Reig Jofre (member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech) and Leanbio, announces a global license agreement with Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to commercialise its biosimilar drug LB-0702 for the treatment of haematology diseases.

Innerva Pharmaceuticals (Innerva), a company developing a new drug for the treatment of ocular pain associated with dry eye and other ocular surface diseases, has completed a €2,300,000 round led by venture capital firm Inveready, member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, through the Inveready Biotech III Fund.

Following the joint project started last march, DevsHealth incorporated its first spin-out 3CL-Bio, in cooperation with Fundació Lluita contra les infeccions and IrsiCaixa. The new company will serve as the vehicle to develop a new oral COVID-19 treatment.

BHV Partners, the first venture builder specialising in healthcare in Southern Europe, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been granted €200,000 in a participatory loan from the National Innovation Company (Enisa) to consolidate its organisational structure and continue to project its international growth.

Genomcore (Made of Genes), leading company in data solutions for the implementation of precision medicine, has launched an investment round through Capital Cell, Europe’s first online investment platform specialized in biomedicine. The goal of the campaign is to reach €500,000 of funding to prepare the entry of a new strategic partner that will accompany the internationalization of the company, eventually concluding in the establishment of the company in the USA.

Omomyc (OMO-103) is a therapeutic mini-protein developed by Peptomyc SL, a spin-off company by the VHIO and Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies’ (ICREA), which was co-founded by Laura Soucek in 2014. Having previously shown the preclinical efficacy and safety of this novel cell-penetrating mini-protein in mouse models, Laura Soucek’s team successfully developed anti-MYC peptides for the treatment of several tumor types, the first of which, OMO-103, now shows promise in becoming the first ever clinically viable and direct inhibitor of MYC – a protein implicated in driving and maintaining cancer.

Neuraxpharm Group (Neuraxpharm), a leading European pharmaceutical company specialising in the treatment of Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders, and mjn-neuro, a start-up that designs, produces and sells medical devices, have announced the signing of a marketing agreement for mjn-SERAS, a wearable medical device that predicts the risk of suffering an epileptic crisis.

BME's acceleration programme has incorporated four new companies into its "Entorno Pre Mercado" (EpM) programme, which aims to accelerate the company's stock market debut. Onalabs, a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, is one of these four companies, along with Ludium, Vamos and V2C.