25 March 2020
CataloniaBio & HealthTech would like to express its thanks and support for all healthcare professionals (including our member centres, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Hospital de Sant Pau, Germans Triasi Pujol Hospital and Hospital Valld’Hebron), as well as the start-ups and companies for their donations, for continuing to produce essential products and medications and for providing innovative solutions to tackle the situation caused by Covid-19.We’re compiled some actions that may be of interest to the companies and organisations in the ecosystem:
Virtual marketplace of companies
Under the framework of the collaboration between CataloniaBioHT and ACCIÓ, a virtual marketplace has been created ...
24 March 2020
ACCIÓ, l'agència per a la competitivitat de l'empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya, ha posat en marxa un marketplace virtual per posar en contacte empreses i fabricants de tecnologia i material sanitari per fer front a l'emergència sanitària del Covid-19.
La consellera d'Empresa, Àngels Chacón, ha remarcat la solidesa i les capacitats industrials del teixit empresarial català i ha fet una crida "a les empreses que vulguin ajudar fent material sanitari o vulguin trobar proveïdors que els calgui. Des del marketplace els posem en contacte entre ells i també amb el Departament de Salut".
Aquest marketplace s’emmarca dins la ...
24 March 2020
Leitat, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Seat and HP have created a 3D-printed respirator to cover the lack of this essential equipment in hospitals and ICUs in Catalonia caused by Covid-19.
Manel Balcells, president of the advisory board to the Catalan Ministry of Health, explained to Catalan TV that “it is a respirator for an emergency situation that allows us to quickly scale up industrial production, to 50-100 units a day.”
The device was designed by Leitat engineer Magí Galindo and medically validated at Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell under the leadership ...
18 March 2020
The City Council presented its Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023 with €4 million in funds to continue promoting research and knowledge in the city through 15 goals and 51 specific measures.
The main focal points that will guide roll-out of the plan are based on boosting the international projection of university and science institutions in Barcelona in order to generate and consolidate alliances; earmarking specific funding for research into innovative solutions that have an impact on society; bridging the gap between science and society and fostering scientific vocation; and incentivising the creative links among art, science and technology.
The Scientific ...
18 March 2020
Ability Pharma, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member with shareholders Inveready, Everis and Sodena, will receive €5 million from the Horizon EIC Accelerator programme (successor of the SME Instrument).
The EIC Accelerator provides grant-only support as well as support in the form of blended finance. In fact, Ability Pharma has been awarded 2.5 million as a grant and 2.5 million as a equity managed by the European Investment Bank (EBI).
This biopharmaceutical company based at the UAB Research Park will use these funds to begin a Phase-IIb clinical trial with the ABTL0812 anti-tumour compound on pancreatic cancer. ABTL0812 is ...
17 March 2020
The Catalan Ministry of Health, Catalan Institute of Health, researchers at Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and pharmaceutical corporations Gebro Pharma and Laboratorios Rubio, both CataloniaBio & HealthTech members, have kicked off the first clinical trial in the world to treat and control the Covid-19 pandemic.
The study is giving one antiretroviral drug to people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and another to people in contact with them. It will be tested on nearly 3,000 people and preliminary results are expected this April.
The project is led by renowned epidemiologist Oriol Mitjà of Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital ...
17 March 2020
The Successful Ventures network of business angels is moving into the digital health arena by investing and joining the board at Devicare. The Inveniam Group has guided Devicare in this round.
The company founded by Rosendo Garganta is a leader in research and development of innovative solutions for urology conditions, and will put the investment towards internationalisation of Lit-Control® after having signed 45 distribution deals in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and the United States.
Recently the University of the Balearic Islands and Devicare patented a compound that prevents the calcification of ureteral catheters and bladder catheters.
“We’re ...
17 March 2020
Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has kicked off the Healthcare Entrepreneur Exchange Programme (HEEP) with Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester (United Kingdom). HEEP is the first open innovation and entrepreneurship programme jointly organised by two European hospitals.
The participants at both hospitals are from clinical and care environments, and will pitch their proposals for innovative solutions and technology. The five best from each centre will get mentoring sessions to develop their business plans and, after that, will participate in a pitching competition in September to choose three winners from each hospital.
In the final phase ...
11 March 2020
The Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) obtained more than €1 million in profit by licensing the patent it holds to a new treatment for a rare mitochondrial disease caused by TK2 deficiency. It is the biggest financial profit generated by a Spanish research institute from a patent through tech transfer.
In 2013, Dr Ramon Martí, head of the VHIR Research Group on Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Diseases, and Dr Michio Hirano from Columbia University in New York, discovered this new treatment. Then they licensed the patent to the company Modis Therapeutics (California, United States) which was later acquired by Zogenix ...
11 March 2020
Mediktor, a start-up with offices in Barcelona and New York and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has launched a test to assess the symptoms of Covid-19 using artificial intelligence.
The test will be available online in several languages in order to provide support for healthcare systems around the world.
Users have to answer a series of questions from a doctor and the system will tell them how probable it is they have the Covid-19 virus. It also offers a list of conditions with similar symptoms to Covid-19 and a recommendation on what to do next. It is a pre-diagnosis and does ...
11 March 2020
Aortyx, a spin-off of the IQS School of Engineering and Hospital Clinic Barcelona that specialises in creating endovascular devices for aortic dissections, has increased its capital by €650,000 in a round led by Genesis Ventures.
“This investment will allow us to continue meeting the deadlines we’ve set and moving towards our goal of launching the best possible product to market,” says Dr Jordi Martorell, co-founder and CEO of Aortyx.
The company has begun animal studies and will start industrialisation of its medical device with the goal of marketing it by 2024.
Both Aortyx and Genesis Ventures are CataloniaBio ...
11 March 2020
Ferrer, a pharmaceutical corporation and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, announced that Indian start-up Wellthy Therapeutics is the winner of the Ferrer 4 Future open innovation programme. The challenge included showcasing 65 start-ups from all over the world.
The two companies will sign a partnership agreement to develop a tool to help improve care for chronic patients.
The Ferrer 4 Future programme was launched by the company in November 2019. "Innovation and digital health solutions are key to finding new ways of improving patients’ clinical outcomes and quality across the patient care value chain. That is why we ...
4 March 2020
CataloniaBio & HealthTech has appointed a new president and four new members of the current Board of Directors (2018-2022), as per the association’s bylaws. At the general assembly of members held this morning in Barcelona, Judit Anido was appointed president of CataloniaBioHT for the next two years, replacing Jaume Amat who moves into the position of first vice-president.
Co-founder and general manager of Mosaic Biomedicals (a Northern Biologics company), Anido is the first woman to lead the association of companies in the life sciences and health arena in Catalonia.
The new board members are Marta Palicio, Chief Innovation Officer ...
26 February 2020
Onalabs, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has received a Startup Capital grant from ACCIÓ for €75,000 to kick off their initial business plan.
The start-up has opened a round of funding to speed launch to market of its non-invasive device that monitors lactate in athletes’ sweat to assess their physical conditions at all times and optimise performance using an app for mobile phones or smart watches. Lactate is currently measured using a blood test.
Onalabs has developed its own sensor technology platform for remote monitoring of biomarkers.
As CEO Josep Cardona explained, the company expects to begin marketing ...
19 February 2020
The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Innovation Workgroup (WG) brought together more than 60 executives, investors and professionals in the Boosting Digital Health Innovation session on 17 February in the Barcelona Science Park to analyse the current situation and the key challenges in digital health.
"The development of digital health is accelerating worldwide and in Catalonia too. We need to promote new models and complementarity between all stakeholders in the health and life sciences ecosystem, and here CataloniaBioHT plays a key role as an association that represents the business world in Catalonia," said Isabel Amat, Global Head of ...
18 February 2020
Oncoheroes Biosciences, the first company exclusively focused on the development of innovative medicines to treat cancer in children and adolescents, signed an agreement with Dreamers Startup Ventures to invest up to $1.1 million in the coming months. The biotech company is currently raising a 5 million preserie A round.
It is an important financial achievement to continue working on the clinical development plan for volasertib, its first asset in-licensed from Boehringer Ingelheim.
Oncoheroes is a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member based in Barcelona and Boston.
Photo: Cesare Spadoni, co-founder and COO of Oncoheroes, receiving an award ...
16 February 2020
iVascular, a company that specialises in advanced medical therapies and devices for vascular diseases, is celebrating its tenth anniversary, present in 70 countries.
“We’re a creative, committed team that is passionate about working to save lives,” explains CEO Lluís Duocastella.
iVascular is innovation and high technology. Currently, the company has a 1,250-m2 R&D centre in Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona) and has a vertical integration project in place to cover the whole product process, from design, development and manufacturing to commercialisation.
Over these 10 years, iVascular has found a place on the international market thanks to its ...
12 February 2020
The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Regulatory Affairs Workgroup (WG) hosted its fifth Hard Reg Café, on 7 February at the Barcelona Science Park, focusing on the new European database on medical devices (EUDAMED) with expert Richard Houlihan. Many medical technology companies and start-ups in Catalonia were interested in the session, which brought together more than 50 professionals after reaching capacity just days after the first announcement.
The presentation was led by WG coordinators and CataloniaBioHT board members Lidia Cánovas (Asphalion) and Lluís Chico (NEOS Surgery).
“The European Committee will launch EUDAMED in May 2022, without any more delays, but ...
11 February 2020
QMENTA, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a round of funding for more than €1.4 million through Capital Cell.
Created in 2013 in Boston and Barcelona, QMENTA provides a best-in-class, cloud-based data management platform that houses a patented, AI-powered analytical algorithms as well as a marketplace of partnered algorithms.
QMENTA’s integrated solution enables clinicians to diagnose and treat brain disease with certainty and speed anywhere and anytime. The company currently has a team of 31 experts in neuroimaging, AI and engineering.
Rob Bancroft, new CEO
Along with further good news, the company has also announced the ...
10 February 2020
Avinent, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, finished 2019 with €32 million in revenue after a firm commitment to innovation, science and technological capacity.
Last year’s results and the new projects for this year, like finishing the new corporate headquarters in Santpedor, were presented on 17 January at the company’s annual event at Món Sant Benet.
The two newest business divisions, CAD CAM and digital health, are growing both in Spain and abroad. The CAD CAM line offers high-quality personalised implant and prosthetics service, and the digital health division provides personalised solutions for the maxillofacial sector (OMFS).
From March 12 to ...