Almirall, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and Dermira have started the Phase III study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of lebrikizumab in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.

It is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The study is expected to enroll a total of 800 adult and adolescent patients at approximately 200 sites in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Topline results from the 16-week induction period expected in the first half of 2021.

In June 2019, Almirall signed with Dermira a license agreement under which Almirall acquired exclusive license rights to develop lebrikizumab for the treatment or ...

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is one of the six centres to be awarded accreditation in this round of the Severo Ochoa excellence programme by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Furthermore, IBEC is the only centre that receives this accreditation for the second time.

IBEC Director Josep Samitier expressed his gratitude for the award and highlights that: “the progress that bioengineering has experienced in the 21st century allows to face challenges of new diagnoses and therapies for diseases without an adequate solution, so that clinicians will be able to develop a more personalized, precise and ...

Peptomyc, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, announces it has appointed Dr Manuela Niewel as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Niewel will assume responsibility for leading Peptomyc’s overall clinical development, regulatory and medical affairs activities.

Peptomyc is currently completing its pre-clinical safety studies with OMO103, its first-in-class peptide compound against MYC, an oncoprotein deregulated in most types of cancer. OMO103 has demonstrated its anti-tumor activity in multiple mouse models.

“We are convinced that Manuela’s deep experience in patients, innovative drug development and regulatory strategy will contribute to the successful implementation of our clinical trials in 2020” says Laura Soucek and Marie-Eve Beaulieu ...

Rob Surgical, the company responsible for designing and developing the new Bitrack System to universalise high precision surgery, has closed a €5 million investment round with the holding Scranton Enterprises to fund the final phase of the project and launch the product on the market. Osborne Clarke and RCD law firms provided advice throughout the process.This investment will allow us to obtain CE certification in 30 months.The Bitrack System will be an alternative to the current laparoscopy surgical robot Da Vinci, and will be an improvement on what is currently available in terms of efficiency. "Our value proposition ...

The Centre of Male Infertility and Analysis of Barcelona (CIMAB), a spin-off of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a deal with Israeli company MFC to distribute its Sperm VD device, which more efficiently stores sperm for fertility treatments, in Spain and Portugal.

What sets this device apart from current cryopreservation methods used for sperm is that “it provides a suitable solution in cases of severe masculine infertility, as it can cryopreserve even very small numbers of sperm,” highlights Dr Agustí Garcia, general manager of CIMAB.

More than 70 million couples all over ...

The advisory council for the National Pact for the Knowledge Society (PNSC) was set up on 20 September in Barcelona in the presence of President of the Government of Catalonia Quim Torra and Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge Àngels Chacón. The event also featured Secretary General for Business and Knowledge Joaquim Ferrer, Secretary General for Universities and Research Francesc Xavier Grau, and PNSC coordinator Mercè Chacón.

The council is chaired by former rector of the University of Barcelona Màrius Rubiralta and made up of 38 figures from the academic, scientific, business and social arenas, including former Catalan Minister of ...

Ability Pharma, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €2.3-million round of funding to complete Phase II clinical trials on its drug for endometrial and lung cancer (ABTL0812). Later, the objective is to reach a licensing agreement with a pharmaceutical company to continue development and commercialisation of the drug.

Participants in theinvestment round included the new venture capital fund Inveready Biotech III managed by Inveready and the FiTalent corporate venture fund of Everis Group. Last December, Ability raised €1.2 million euros through a crowdfunding round with Capital Cell.

“We’ve seen promising results in the ongoing clinical trials ...

Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH have signed a worldwide licensing agreement for the anti-cancer compound volasertib. 

Boehringer Ingelheim assigns to Oncoheroes the intellectual property of volasertib, with exclusive rights to R&D, sell and sublicense the compound. 

Oncoheroes is a Boston-based biotech company focused on the development of innovative medicines to treat cancer in children and adolescents. The company was co-founded in 2018 by Ricardo Garcia and Cesare Spadoni, two parents touched by childhood cancer and determined to change the outlook for these young patients.

“This is probably the first example of ...

The new fund ICF Venture Tech II has invested €0.5 million in the biotechnology company Vytrus Biotech, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member. 

The Catalan Finance Institute (ICF) investment is part of a financing round of €1.5 million aimed at boosting the growth of Vytrus: 70% of the remaining round has been obtained through different institutional and minority investors, and the other 30% will be closed in this crowdfunding campaign at Sociosinversores.com.

Vytrus bases its business on a technology of vegetable stem cell culture used to develop, produce and market vegetable active ingredients of high added value used ...

Idneo, an engineering company associated with CataloniaBio & HealthTech, has set up an additive manufacturing unit kitted out with a cutting-edge 3D printer at its headquarters in Mollet del Vallès (Barcelona). 

Through this new service, the company is committing to offer more sustainable and economic manufacturing for prototypes, tools and small series for medical devices, IoT, mobility and industry. 

Idneo has a team made up of 400 people and they have recently appointed executive Pau Planas as the MedTech Business Unit Director.

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GoodGut has closed a €500,000 round of funding through the Capital Cell platform, raising 25% more than its initial goal. The funds will go towards finishing clinical validation of a non-invasive RAID-CRC test for colorectal-cancer screening using intestinal microbiota.

The company estimates that RAID-CRC will cut unnecessary colonoscopies by 30% and save up to €60 million per round of screening.

Mariona Serra, co-founder and CEO of GoodGut, is thankful to the more than 200 small investors, physicians and patients who have believed in the project. “This is the final push that will allow us to enter the valuable in ...

Manremyc, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a €250,000 round of investment on the Capital Cell crowdfunding platform, with 45 new small investors joining the company’s stakeholders.

Instead of developing a drug to cure tuberculosis or a vaccine to prevent it, Manremyc has developed a probiotic that is highly effective at preventing the spread of this disease. Development of this product is cheaper, faster and less risky. Now the company has raised this capital, it will strengthen the launch to market of Nyaditum resae® after having signed 65 sales deals with pharmaceutical companies.

“In late September, we’ll have ...

Kaneka Corporation is now the majority shareholder in Catalan biotechnology firm AB-Biotics (66.33%), after launching a friendly takeover last July, according to Europa Press. 

Kaneka joined the AB-Biotics shareholders in 2018 and previously held a 39.76% stake in the company. The takeover paid €5 per share, costing the Japanese group a total of €16.7 million. One of the investors’ main goals is for AB-Biotics to soon stop trading on the Spanish Alternative Stock Exchange (MAB).

Founders Àngel Bonachera and Sergi Audivert still have 12% of shares.AB-Biotics, based at Esade Creapolis in Sant Cugat del Vallès ...

Oryzon Genomics, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has carried out a €20-million capital increase through private international investors, after presenting promising clinical results at several congresses.

The company, which specialises in innovative epigenetic therapies, has recently finished recruiting patients for its Phase IIa clinical trials to assess the safety, tolerability and efficacy of vafidemstat (ORY-2001) in various psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. 

Vafidemstat is an oral molecule that curbs cognitive degeneration, memory loss and neuroinflammation, as well as showing neuroprotective effects. In preclinical trials, Vafidemstat restored cognitive deterioration and eliminated aggressiveness in SAMP8 mice, a model with advanced ageing and ...

After the success of the first edition, Banco Sabadell is launching a new BStartup Health call for proposals to support three start-ups in the healthcare sector with an investment of €100,000 and strategic mentoring in exchange for an equity share. The deadline for applications is 30 September 2019.

The projects will be evaluated based on their potential for growth and scalable, innovative business models.

Genesis Biomed will analyse the proposals received and the scientific committee, made up of Montserrat Vendrell, DamiàTormo, Carlos Gallardo and Clara Campàs, will choose the three winning projects.

Banco Sabadell’s commitment to health sector is ...

The Innovadores supplement of the newspaper La Razón has done a feature on Syna Therapeutics, joint venture of Reig Jofre and Leanbio created in 2018, explaining that the company is developing two biosimilar drugs for haemostasis and immuno-oncology.

Going from research to industrialisation and marketing with biosimilars was complicated in Spain before Syna was founded. Nowadays, Reig Jofre and Leanbio bring their expertise to the table to address the whole value chain and bring these drugs to patients.

Developing top-quality biosimilars and innovative molecules is a growing line of business in the pharmaceutical market to treat serious diseases. “Biosimilar drugs ...

Marc Pérez Pey is the new president of the Spanish Federation Healthcare Technology Companies (Fenin) in Catalonia, taking over for José Luis Fernández. Fernández will be vice president until new elections are held in 2021.

Marc Pérez Pey is currently regional director for Western Europe and North Africa for Hartmann laboratories. The executive will continue with the board’s lines geared towards promoting innovation in the sector and maintaining communication and collaboration with the Catalan government and other stakeholders in the ecosystem to tackle new challenges.

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Asabys Partners, CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and Alantra have reached a strategic partnership agreement, where Alantra will acquire a 35% stake in the venture capital firm specialized in investments in the life sciences and health sectors.

Alantra will also invest in the first fund of the firm (Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments) and will support the company in its search for new investors to increase the fund size to over 80 million euros.

This transaction represents Alantra’s first venture capital deal led by Ana Segurado, managing partner of Alantra for VC projects, and former executive of Telefonica.

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Some 300 executives, entrepreneurs and investors from the health and biomedicine sector in Catalonia participated in the summer barbecue hosted by CataloniaBio & HealthTech on 18 July at the Specipig headquarters. This year the BBQ received support from investment funds Asabys Partners, Alta Life Sciences, Genesis Ventures, Invivo Ventures and Ysios Capital.

“In an innovation-based sector, like ours, people are the driving force and the BBQ, beyond the companies, is about the people,” highlighted Jaume Amat, president of CataloniaBioHT, when addressing the guests. Amat also made reference to the fact that “the cyclical activities CataloniaBioHT puts on are ...

President of CataloniaBio & HealthTech and CEO of Specipig, Jaume Amat participated in this year's commission set up by the ACCIÓ Catalonia Clusters programme, on 11 July in Gavà (Barcelona), along with the rest of the presidents of the 30 accredited clusters.

The meeting was led by Catalan Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge Àngels Chacón, ACCIÓ CEO Joan Romero and ACCIÓ Head of Clusters Joan Martí.

According to data announced at the meeting, the number of companies and knowledge stakeholders that belong to Catalan clusters has quadrupled over the past 10 years to a total of 2,300 members (30 ...