Pharmacelera, a startup specialising in research into molecules using quantum mechanics and artificial intelligence and a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €1-million round of funding on Capital Cell led by investors from the pharmaceutical sector.

This funding aims to accelerate the company’s commercial plan, especially in the North-American market, and to carry out two proof-of-concept studies in areas that are strategic for the company’s positioning. Recently, the company hired Bill Wiersma, former VP for Sales and Marketing at Labtronics (acquired by PerkinElmer), as its North America Sales Manager.

Pharmacelera has developed the computing platform called PharmScreen® which ...

The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Regulatory Affairs Workgroup devoted its ninth Hard Reg Café session to the regulatory challenges facing advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP), on 28 April.

ATMP are highly innovative drugs that are needed to treat diseases in the 21st century. In the European Union, 17 were authorised between 2009 and 2020. Oncology is the main area, followed by neurology, infectious diseases and endocrinology.

“ATMP based on the patient’s own genes, cells or tissues are revolutionising healthcare, but the regulatory process for them isn’t easy,” noted Lluís Chico, managing partner of NEOS Surgery and first vice-president of CataloniaBio ...

The Metabolism Research Centre (Ceremet) in the Faculty of Biology at the University of Barcelona has received a Good Laboratory Practice (BPL) certificate for handling trial products and obtaining specimens, awarded by the Government of Catalonia.

Since 2003, Ceremet has been offering scientific guidance and experimental support for pharmaceutical and biomedical businesses. Their expertise in physiology, biochemistry and metabolism means they can conduct in vitro studies, biochemical analyses and pre-clinical studies, including studies with animal models.

Furthermore, Ceremet has a network of collaborators within the Faculty of Biology and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute to extend their services ...

Genesis Biomed, a consultancy firm and a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and DKV have signed a collaboration agreement to promote digital health through DKV Innolab.

DKV Innolab is a space located in the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site in Barcelona, designed to generate practical knowledge, research and analysis on emergent trends in this field, which will play a determining role in the post-COVID-19 era.

Natàlia de la Figuera, partner and COO at Genesis Biomed, pointed out "we will provide DKV Innolab with our business development knowledge, mainly in the field of entrepreneurship, to find the best business models to reach ...

Aortyx, a spin-off of Institut Químic de Sarrià and Hospital Clinic Barcelona that is developing an innovative patch for minimally invasive treatment of aortic dissections, has closed its second round of funding for €2.4 million through acrowdequity campaign on Capital Cell. CataloniaBio & Healthtech, which Aortyx is a member of, announced the round in early March.

This round brought in Medex Partners, Vergara Capital and several family offices as new shareholders. 

The financial resources will go to kick off pilot clinical trials in patients scheduled for 2022.

Between capital and competitive grants, Aortyx has raised nearly €5 million ...

Asian biopharmaceutical firm SeriTech, which has a subsidiary in Barcelona and is a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has hired cardiovascular surgeon Manuel Galiñanes as its new Chief Medical Officer.

Galiñanes has a PhD in Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of London, a degree in Medicine from the University of Salamanca and in Cardiovascular Surgery from the Complutense University of Madrid. He practised for over 20 years in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada and has been head of Cardiac Surgery at Vall d’Hebron Hospital and co-founder of the European Society of Cardiology’s working group on Cell Therapy.  ...

Enantia, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech and specialised in medicinal chemistry, process chemistry and solid form development, has expanded its facilities at the Barcelona Science Park commissioning a new Kilo Lab.

The Kilo Lab is designed for the development, scale up and production of key intermediates and compounds to be used in preclinical phases of the development of a drug.

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Photo: Enantia's Kilo Lab - © Barcelona Science Park

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Better Care, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member that provides connectivity and clinical data management solutions for hospitals, has appointed Xavier García Ordóñez as its new CEO.

García Ordóñez holds a degree in Business Management and Administration from the Open University of Catalonia and a postgraduate degree in Market Access and Institutional Relations from EADA. He has more than 20 years of experience in sales team management and Market Access. In his career, he has worked in executive positions at the multinational medical technology company Smith & Nephew and Brill Pharma.

“We are embarking on a new era with three objectives ...

Thanks to research and innovation, today we have more personalised treatments for serious diseases like cancer and the COVID-19 vaccines. The Science and Technology Section of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC) devoted its Science Thursdays conference yesterday to competitive innovation being done in Catalonia in the health arena.

The guest speakers were Judit Anido, CEO of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, the organisation that represents companies in the sector, and Laia Arnal, Business Development director at Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).

The session kicked off with a welcome from IEC Science Section President Alícia Casals (co-founder of the spin-off Rob Surgical ...

Twenty-eight renowned researchers, including Josep M. Canals and Unai Perpiñá from the Production and Validation Centre of Advanced Therapies (Creatio) at the University of Barcelona, have created the Stem Cells for Huntington's Disease (SC4HD) consortium to promote advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) for Huntington’s Disease.

The main goals of SC4HD are to work together with the Huntington’s Disease community, develop criteria and guidance and address the main challenges to quickly and safely bring potentially beneficial stem cell-based therapies to patients. 

The researchers are based in ten different countries.

SC4HD was officially announced in a recent issue of the Journal ...

Juan Suárez of the Barcelona law firm Aránega, Miravitlles & Suárez, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been listed on the prestigious Chambers & Partners Europe 2021 ranking as one of the top lawyers in Spain in the life sciences.

Aránega, Miravitlles & Suárez advise pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare product companies and institutions on investment operations, contracts, taxes, and corporate and regulatory issues. The founding partners are Francisco Aránega, Javier Miravitlles, Juan Suárez and Anna Mitjavila.

Want to learn more about Aránega, Miravitlles & Suárez? We recommend this video of CataloniaBio & HealthTech interviewing them:

Consultancy firm Genesis Biomed, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has signed a collaboration agreement with REGIC, the network of clinical research managers in Spain.

Genesis Biomed specialises in guidance and investment for startups and spinoffs in the healthcare sector (biotechnology, medical devices and digital health).

“To advance biomedical research, it is essential to share experiences and create spaces for collaboration. If there is one thing we’ve learned over these years, it is the value of shared information and that is why we believe that collaborating with REGIC will bring value added to our clients,” notes Josep Lluís Falcó, founder ...

Vytrus Biotech, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, will introduce its cosmetics active ingredients in India, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay after signing two distribution deals with Nano Tech Chemical Brothers and Blumos Group.

“The Indian cosmetics market is opening up to new concepts and technology and the one from Vytrus is a good fit thanks to its sustainability and focus on plant-based products,” explains Business Development Manager Daniel Robustillo.

The Latin-American market is a big step forward in international expansion for Vytrus, which will now be present in over 54 countries (70% of the company’s sales).

Vytrus is one of ...

IOMED, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has presented its new Compass interface that allows users to consult and get access to Real World Medical data instantly, with information from the medical histories of 3.5 million patients.

Users can filter their search with several demographic and clinical criteria (diagnoses, procedures, active ingredients, remarks or appointment details) for groups of patients or hospital centres. The data is obtained on aggregate, applying very strict security and privacy criteria. The data always remains with the hospital.

Compass aims to help accelerate clinical research in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

In this video, IOMED ...

Inbrain Neuroelectronics, a spin-off of the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and ICREA, has raised €14.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Asabys Partners and Alta Life Sciences and joined by the Centre for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), Catalan Finance Institute (ICF) and international investors Vsquared Ventures and TruVenturo GmbH.

Inbrain is developing graphene-based neuroelectronic therapies for patients with epilepsy, Parkinson and other brain related disorders. Specifically, the company is developing a less-invasive smart neural system, driven by artificial intelligence and big data, that will be able to read and modulate brain activity ...

Inveready, a venture capital management firm and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has registered a €20-million fund called Inveready Alternative Markets (ALMA) with the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) to invest in alternative markets in Europe.

The new vehicle will invest between €1 million and €2 million in companies traded on the BME Growth, Euronext Growth, AIM Italia and AIM London markets.

Inveready is the main institutional investor in success stories such as Atrys Health, MásMóvil, Gigas Hosting, VozTelecom and Agile Content.

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Photo: Rubén González, director of the new fund ALMA - © Inveready

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Catalan biopharmaceutical firm Mitelos, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has signed a deal with Biolab Pharma to commercialise its Otiblock® spray in Brazil. 

Otiblock® is an innovative therapeutic solution that eliminates earwax while maintaining proper pH levels thanks to its oil-free formulation. Otiblock® is particularly beneficial to people prone to relapse, such as those with narrow ear canals or who use hearing aids or earphones.

"We are selling Otiblock® in 12 countries and we plan to launch the product in three more. Our priority is to find distributors in France, Germany, Turkey and Scandinavia," explains Joaquim ...

Biotechnology start-up Gain Therapeutics Inc. has begun trading on Nasdaq (New York) with the symbol “GANX” and an initial public offering of 3,636,364 shares at $11 each. 

BTIG, LLC and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. are serving as book-running managers for the offering and National Securities Corporation as co-manager.

Gain Therapeutics is developing new-generation pharmacological chaperones to treat rare diseases using proprietary SEE-Tx® technology (from Catalan firm Minoryx Therapeutics). Its pipeline covers five active programmes, including GM1 gangliosidosis, Gaucher disease, Parkinson, Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 and Krabbe disease. 

The company, founded in 2018, is based in Lugano ...

In a year made difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic, the health and life sciences sector in Catalonia reached an exceptional milestone. In 2020, startups in the BioRegion managed to raise €226 million in investment, the most ever, doubling in just two years from €112 million in 2018. 

The main source of this funding was venture capital, with a total of €140 million. There were 41 operations in total, up 58% from 2019. This data is from the final version of the “Investment in startups” chapter of the BioRegion of Catalonia Life Sciences and Healthcare Outlook 2020 - Challenges Ahead, presented ...

Ten Catalan companies that develop innovative solutions for healthcare have been selected to participate in Phase II of BIOMED ScaleUP's first edition. This is the corporate programme promoted by CataloniaBio & HealthTech with collaboration from Lead To Change and support from ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia).