Qiagen, one of the main publicly traded medical diagnostics companies, has announced it hopes to have a test to detect the coronavirus by the end of this month.

The company is studying several options, including the DiagCORE® solution from Catalan company STAT-Dx (acquired by Qiagen in 2018).

DiagCORE® allows for fast molecular diagnosis of serious infectious diseases, which could be key in detecting the coronavirus quickly. The process is fully automated and gets results in roughly one hour, which are interpreted by integrated software and shown to healthcare professionals using an intuitive user interface. In this interview with CNBC ...

Asphalion, a science and regulatory affairs consultancy and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has inaugurated new offices at Wells House 80 Upper Street in London to bolster the services it offers companies with current or future operations in the United Kingdom.

“The United Kingdom is one of the most important healthcare and life sciences markets in Europe. Setting up Asphalion UK Ltd. will make our interactions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency easier and help our clients tackle the challenges on the horizon,” explains Núria Romero, managing director of the consultancy firm.

Asphalion’s central headquarters are in ...

CataloniaBio & HealthTech is launching the sixth edition of its Biosuccess Award, an initiative that will recognise the best business milestone of 2019 in the health and life sciences sector in Catalonia. The deadline for submitting candidacies is 14 February, using this form.

The winner will receive an honorific award at the 2020 CataloniaBioHT Gala Dinner, the benchmark networking dinner in the sector that brings together over 200 entrepreneurs, executives and investors, as well as politicians and figures from business and scientific institutions. The CataloniaBioHT Gala Dinner will be held on 16 March at the Palau de la Música in ...

Seven CataloniaBio & HealthTech member companies are participating in Arab Health 2020, the most important medical technology fair in the Middle East, held from 27 to 30 January at the World Trade Center in Dubai. This year, Arab Health has brought together over 106,000 professionals and 4,250 exhibitors from 159 countries, with support from the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health and Prevention.

Catalan companies Fertypharm, Kiversal, Made of Genes, Mediktor, Mitelos, NEOS Surgery and Vecmedical have travelled to Dubai to identify new business opportunities and present their innovative products in audition, fertility, genomics, neurosurgery and general surgery ...

Senolytic Therapeutics (Senolytx), a biotechnology firm based in Barcelona and Boston and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been awarded a Neotec grant for €250,000 from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.

Senolytx is developing a new class of senolytic drugs, which eliminate damaged cells. “This area has a lot of potential and high impact, as we’re living in an increasingly aged society. For the first time, we’re treating age-related diseases by targeting cellular senescence,” explained CEO and co-founder Marc Ramis at the Longevity World Forum.

The company’s top priority for 2020 is preclinical development of its candidate ...

The Bosch i Gimpera Foundation has compiled all the experimental biomedical models developed by researchers at the University of Barcelona (UB) in the first edition of the Catalogue of Preclinical Models in Biomedical Research.

The catalogue aims to be a tool for researchers to search for a model based on the disease or process they are studying. It will be updated periodically. It includes both models based on cell lines (in vitro and ex vivo) and animal models (in vivo). It also presents two UB research groups that specialise in creating new experimental models: Celltec and Ceremet.

Preclinical models are ...

Vytrus Biotech, a Catalan biotechnology firm that works in plant stem-cell cultures and the production of active ingredients for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. This comes at a time of growth for the company, which expects to go public in late 2020. Newspaper El Periódico published a report on the company, with the title The Year of Vytrus Biotech (in Spanish).

Over the past three years, Vytrus’ sales have seen over 30% growth thanks to nine products on the market and distribution deals in 54 countries. The firm has 22 professionals on staff (35% in ...

Inveready, a Barcelona-based venture capital management company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has set up its first fund with private capital (family offices and banks) targeting growing small and medium-sized enterprises.

GAEA Inversió hopes to raise €110 million to invest in 10 companies valued between €5 million and €75 million with investments between €2 million and €20 million.

The GAEA team is made up of Inveready partners Josep Maria Echarri and Carlos Conti (read their interview in El Economista), with Ramon Resa as Director of Investment (previously at PWC).

Echarri, who has been involved in benchmark operations like IPOs at ...

Digital-health start-up Mediktor, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has signed a deal with Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) to bring its artificial intelligence-based technology to assess symptoms to the US market. 

YNHHS will integrate the Mediktor medical assistant into the digital front door of the five hospitals it manages, so patients can input their symptoms and get a clinically validated diagnosis in just few minutes. They can also schedule a telemedicine appointment with professionals at the centre at the same time.

The deal got the go ahead from Dr Peter Schulam, YNHHS head of Innovation. Oscar García-Esquirol, CMO and ...

Almirall, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has announced the agreement to acquire Bioniz Therapeutics, Inc. based in Irvine (California, US) for €55 million. 

Bioniz is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that develops first-in-class peptide treatments that selectively inhibit multiple cytokines to treat immuno-inflammatory diseases and T-cell malignancies.

Bioniz' lead product candidate, BNZ-1, has completed Phase I Single Ascending Dose (SAD) and Multiple Ascending Dose (MAD) clinical trials and is currently in Phase I/IIa clinical development in Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma (CTCL).

Bhushan Hardas, Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall, commented that “this agreement is a big step forward for us ...

Esteve, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, ended 2019 with the sale of its generics division and kicked off 2020 with the acquisition of German pharmaceutical company Riemser. 

With its headquarters in Berlin and geographical presence in four countries (Germany, United Kingdom, France and Spain), Riemser has a diversified portfolio of products with the three main therapeutic areas being: oncology, neurology and niche therapies. Over 80% of sales come from the hospital channel.

Esteve CEO Staffan Schüberg said, "This acquisition makes Esteve much more of an international proprietary, specialty pharma company, and opens the door to the growing hospital sector." ...

Ergon Capital has announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Palex Medical, the leading distributor of innovative MedTech equipment for hospitals in Spain and Portugal, for €150 million. Palex is a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member.

Palex CEO Xavier Carbonell said, “Ergon is the right partner for our new phase in which we look forward to pursuing further growth opportunities in Spain and abroad.”

Pablo Álvarez Couso, director at Ergon Spain, emphasised the excellent talent and visionary management team, and their support for the future expansion.

Founded in 1955 by the Knuth family, Palex is headquartered in Sant Cugat ...

Aromics Biotech, a CataloniaBio &  HealthTech member, and its Bermes project have been chosen to participate in the exhibition The fight against asbestos organised by Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB).

The exhibition will be on through mid-January at Espai Mercè Sala in the Diagonal metro station.

Aromics, led by Dr Carme Plasencia, is developing the drug NAX035 to treat malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the type of cancer caused by direct exposure to asbestos. It is aggressive, difficult to give a prognosis for and currently has very few therapeutic options.

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Aortyx, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been awarded a €250,000 grant through the Neotec 2019 programme that the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness holds annually to support the creation and consolidation of technology-based companies. In this year’s call, the programme is awarding a total of 96 grants.

Set up in 2018 by researchers at the IQS School of Engineering and Hospital Clinic Barcelona (Jordi Martorell, Noemí Balà, Salvador Borrós and Vincenç Riambau), Aortyx is working to provide a new generation of endovascular devices to treat aortic diseases, in response to unmet medical needs. The company’s technology focuses ...

Ana Polanco, Market Access and Corporate Affairs director at Merck Spain, has been voted president of the Spanish Bioindustry Association (Asebio) for the upcoming two-year term, taking over from Jordi Martí. The members voted on 18 December at the association’s general assembly.

Also voted in were Vice-presidents Belén Barreiro, general director of Ingenasa; Elena Pérez, CEO of A4Cell; and Javier Terriente, CSO of ZeClinics. The voting members of the board of directors are Rocío Arroyo of Amadix, Nora Alonso of Iden Biotechnology, Carmen Eibe of Pharma Mar, Antonio López of Science & Innovation Link Office, and Gurutz Linazasoro of Vive ...

Neos Surgery, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has donated Cranial LOOP devices to the Doctor Clavel Foundation, an initiative of neurosurgeon Pablo Clavel and his team that does charity work with hospitals in developing countries to encourage the study of diseases of the brain and spinal cord.

The foundation’s main project is at Adama Hospital Medical College, in the capital of the most populated region of Ethiopia. This year, the Doctor Clavel Foundation has organised five medical expeditions to perform surgeries to implant the Cranial LOOP device in several patients.

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Esteve, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, announced that the Japanese company Towa Pharmaceutical will acquire 100% ownership of its generics division (Pensa Investments). The purchase price of Pensa will be an all cash deal with an upfront payment of 320 million euros.

As part of its strategic plan, Esteve is focusing its business on proprietary products and areas of specialised medicine. 

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Photo: Staffan Schüberg, CEO at Esteve - © Esteve

ZeClinics, a CRO and CataloniaBio & HealTech member, has been chosen to participate in the Reanima project led by the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) to research new strategies to activate the regenerative functions of the heart. The initiative has a budget of €8 million from the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme and will last five years.

ZeClinics will be working with ten top-notch centres, including King's College London (United Kingdom), the University of Bern (Switzerland) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).

Zebrafish as an animal model

Fish and amphibians are able to regenerate their hearts ...

For the second year running, Banco Sabadell has won Europe's Corporate Startup Stars (Open Innovation category), promoted by the European Commission to recognise companies that support and collaborate with start-ups. Yolanda Pérez, director of BStartup, accepted the award at the gala ceremony held on 11 December at the Madrid Stock Exchange.

In all, 12 companies were recognised, including Google for Startups, Nestlé, Pfizer and Vodafone.

Developing new digital solutions and digitising operations are two of Banc Sabadell's priorities for the digital transformation and a model based on personal service and proximity.

BStartup and CataloniaBio & HealthTech work together to promote ...

Anaxomics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has moved to new offices on Carrer de la Diputació in Barcelona ahead of expected growth over the coming three years. The bioinformatics company also has offices in Lausanne (Switzerland) and London (United Kingdom).

In 2019, Anaxomics sales were up 60% (from revenue of €465,000 in 2018) and it now has a portfolio of over 70 clients, including large pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, Sobi, UCB, etc.) and hospitals (Clinic, Dotze d’Octubre, Germans Trias i Pujol, Vall d’Hebron, etc.). The bioinformatics company has a staff of 25 professionals and expects to hire new ...