31 January 2021
Mowoot, a start-up and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has published its first international clinical trial showing the efficacy and safety of the medical device in treating chronic constipation, regardless of the cause.
It was a multi-centre study carried out with 92 patients over 2 years, funded through the EU Horizon 2020 programme.It was led by Doreen McClurg, a benchmark in the field of neurogenic bowel dysfunction at Glasgow Caledonian University, and Immaculada Herrero-Fresneda, co-founder and CSO of Mowoot.
The results have been published in the journal Clinical and Transalational Gastroenterology.
In addition to the publication of this clinical trial ...
29 January 2021
Splice Bio, a spin-off of Princeton University and a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has appointed Jean-Philippe Combal as chairman of its Board of Directors. Combal is a proven senior executive and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (GenSight Biologics, Galderma International, Fovea-Sanofi, among others) and particularly in the field of gene therapy. Currently, he is co-founder and executive director of Vivet Therapeutics (France).
The company is backed by Ysios Capital, Asabys Partners and Caixa Capital Risc.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Combal - © Splice Bio
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Splice Bio to ...29 January 2021
Inbiomotion, a spin-off of IRB Barcelona and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a round of investment led by Alta Life Sciences. The total amount invested has not been disclosed publicly, although the round included existing investors like the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF).
Inbiomotion is developing a test to diagnose breast cancer using a predictive biomarker (MAF test). Clinical trials have shown this biomarker can identify patients with early-stage breast cancer, who would benefit from bisphosphonates in adjuvant treatment to improve life expectancy.
This capital increase will ...
28 January 2021
Law firm Roca Junyent, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and consultancy firm Daleph presented their new Test IN service to maximise companies’ chances of getting European funding or grants from the Next Generation EU funds that Spain will receive between 2021 and 2023 to promote economic recovery.
Specifically, Test IN helps companies identify and assess whether their plans or projects are eligible for funding or grants, and to guide them in meeting the requirements.
Roca Junyent has a department that specialises in the healthcare and life sciences sector, led by Yolanda Puiggròs.
Photo: from left to right, Joan ...
27 January 2021
Minoryx Therapeutics, a biotechnology company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has announced positive results of the Phase II/III clinical trial on its main drug, leriglitazone, in patients with adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN).
“AMN is a rare disease with a great unmet medical need and without any approved treatments currently. The Minoryx clinical trial is a great milestone for this indication” notes Minoryx Chief Medical Officer Uwe Meya.
ADVANCE is a multi-centre, double-blind, placebo-controlled study that took place in hospitals in the United States and Europe, with 116 male patients over 2 years.
Minoryx will begin conversations with the regulatory agencies ...
22 January 2021
CataloniaBio & HealthTech has launched its new BIOMED ScaleUP programme, with collaboration from Lead To Change (LTC) and support from ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia) to help start-ups and companies in the healthcare and life sciences sector in Catalonia take a leap forward in their growth. The BIOMED ScaleUP programme was presented yestarday in a hybrid event (online and in person at the Barcelona Science Park) with entrepreneurs and executives from over 80 companies.
The Catalan healthcare industry has evolved very positively since 2010 in business creation, investment attracted, employment, pipeline growth, and innovative services, but “now it is important ...
18 January 2021
Pharmaceutical company Almirall, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, and biotechnology firm Tyris Therapeutics have announced a new alliance to develop non-viral gene therapies to treat minority dermatology diseases.
Tyris has cutting-edge proprietary technology and will be in charge of generating the drugs through to clinical trials. The Spanish biotech company is funded by Columbus Venture Partners.
The deal is part of Almirall’s strategy to offer innovative medical solutions for skin health.
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Almirall calls for innovation to advance new treatments for skin diseasesAlmirall enters the IBEX 35Almirall acquires the American Bioniz ...11 January 2021
Ability Pharma has signed a €2.45-million investment deal with Chinese company SciClone Pharmaceuticals, which is now a shareholder in the Catalan biotechnology company.
Collaboration between these two companies first began in 2016 with a licensing deal to develop and market the drug ABTL0812 to treat pancreatic cancer in China.
This funding, along with the €2 million the company raised through a crowdfunding campaign last December, will go to fund phase 2 clinical trials on ABTL0812.
Photo: Carles Domènech, founder and president of Ability Pharma.
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Ability closes €2-million round for clinical trials ...11 January 2021
Josep Rodés Cabau has been named Director of Research and Innovation at Hospital Clinic Barcelona for the next 4 years, replacing Elias Campo.
Rodés is currently part of the hospital’s Cardiology Unit. For the previous 18 years, he was head of haemodynamics and interventional cardiology at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, the Canadian benchmark in cardiology and cardiac surgery.
Josep Rodés has set the following priorities: setting up a facility to coordinate clinical studies, consolidating a solid innovation structure, ensuring quantity and quality of scientific production, and promoting young researchers.
9 January 2021
Devicare has announced the first round of investment in the healthcare and life sciences sector in Catalonia in 2021: €2.45 million from Asian Group Advanced MedTech Holdings, which specialises in medical technology for urology.
Other participants in the round include the company’s main partners, EMESA Capital, Joan Knuth and its founder Rosendo Garganta, plus Ship2B through the impact investment fund Equity4Good.
The funding will be used to develop the second generation of Lit-Control®, a non-invasive digitised treatment for kidney stones.
Abel Ang, CEO of Advanced MedTech, says, “We hope to expand the Devicare value proposal on a global scale ...
8 January 2021
Ecopol Tech, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has developed nanocapsules to administer drugs to fight lung and breast cancer that help reduce the systemic toxicity of these treatments.
The new system has been registered under the trademark Ecostratar™ and the University of Barcelona Cancer Cell Biology research group, which is associated with the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), has begun validation in mice. It is expected to move into the clinical phase in 2023.
Ecopol Tech received a grant of nearly €84,000 through the Business Enterprise R&D Nuclis programme from ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia) for this project ...
8 January 2021
Hospital Clinic Barcelona and Bellvitge University Hospital have started using the RAID-CRC test from biotechnology firm GoodGut for early detection of colorectal cancer.
RAID-CRC is a fast, affordable, easy-to-use, non-invasive test and the first to use specific bacterial biomarkers in stool samples. This new, clinically proven method can reduce the number of false positives by 61%, which means those unnecessary colonoscopies don't have to be done.
“With the current healthcare restrictions due to COVID-19, our priority is to identify the patients who would most benefit from a colonoscopy,” explained Dr Francesc Balaguer, head of Gastroenterology at Hospital Clinic ...
7 January 2021
NEOS Surgery, a medical technology company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been received an outright grant for €1.9 million from the leading European programme for funding innovative SMEs, the EIC Accelerator of the European Innovation Council (EIC).
The funding will be dedicated to the clinical validation of the DISC care device, which has been designed based on NEOS Surgery’s know how in the field of neurosurgery to respond to an unmet medical need, lumbar disc herniation.
The latest call of the EIC Accelerator (previously the SME Instrument) featured applications from more than 4,200 projects from 18 ...
7 January 2021
Researchers at IrsiCaixa, a centre promoted by the ”la Caixa” Foundation and the Catalan Ministry of Health, and the Dentaid Research Centre have discovered that cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) can make COVID-19 up to 1,000 times less infectious. CPC is a chemical component of some mouthwashes.
So far, the antiviral effect has been proven in preclinical studies: the membrane becomes unstable in contact with CPC so the S protein is no longer functional and SARS-CoV-2 can no longer infect new cells. A clinical trial to prove its efficacy in humans will begin soon, led by the Fight AIDS and Infectious ...
5 January 2021
Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona and medical technology company Vecmedical presented their Superbox boxes this week, which are used to cover serum, transfusion and chemotherapy bags when used with paediatric patients.
This initiative aims to help give younger patients a more positive experience of their treatment, as explained Dr Pablo Velasco of the Vall d’Hebron Paediatric Oncology and Haematology Unit, and Eunice Blanco, Social Work coordinator, in this article with the newspaper Ara.
Illustrators, photographers and celebrities like Mr Wonderful (Laura de Luque), Pilarín Bayés, Rosalía and the Márquez brothers donated their creations to the project.
The project was ...
31 December 2020
The CataloniaBio & HealthTech board and team wish you all a Happy New Year 2021, and especially to the more than 160 members of the association, its collaborators and healthcare and life sciences professionals.
This is a good time to share the main milestones we’ve achieved and work we’ve done in this year marked by COVID-19, when our sector has been key in helping deal with the pandemic and advance towards an economy and society based on knowledge and innovation.
Liaising with the Government and taking part in strategic initiatives for the country, such as the Government of Catalonia ...16 December 2020
Peptomyc, a spin-off of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and ICREA, has closed its second round of investment for €11.4 million, led by the Italian fund Aurora Science. The operation also involved the CDTI and existing investors such as Alta Life Sciences and HealthEquity, as well as business angels and employees.
This funding will enable Peptomyc, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, to advance its lead candidate OMO103 through to the preliminary results of Phase I clinical trials. OMO103 has already been proven safe and to have anti-tumour activity in several types of experimental cancer models. The first ...
15 December 2020
Big news for dealing with coronavirus and for the healthcare and life sciences sector in Catalonia: pharmaceutical company Reig Jofre, a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, has reached a deal with Janssen of Johnson & Johnson to manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine in Phase III clinical trials.
Reig Jofre has extensive experience in manufacturing injectable and freeze-dried products, both its own and for third parties. In the first quarter of 2021, the company will launch a new state-of-the-art plant in Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona) that will help meet the need for fast, secure deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine. The pharmaceutical company ...
14 December 2020
Splice Bio, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has signed an agreement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the United States to develop new adeno-associated viruses (AAV) to treat cystic fibrosis.
The biotechnology firm, based at the Barcelona Science Park, will receive €282,000 in funding and collaborate with the foundations' Therapeutics Lab to advance its proprietary third-generation platform to modify delivery vehicles for gene therapy and better target specific cells in patients' lungs.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a world leader in research to find a cure to this rare disease that affects over 70,000 people around the ...
14 December 2020
Ferrer, a pharmaceutical company and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been granted a €50 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to develop innovative new treatments in pulmonology and neurology.
The R&D programme the company presented will run through 2024. Currently, Ferrer’s R&D activity is broken down into the Ferrer Advanced Biotherapeutics (FAB), Ferrer Innovation Management (FIM), and digital health and technology divisions.The deal with the EIB reinforces Ferrer’s financial solidity and complements a €220-million funding agreement reached in 2020 with several financial institutions.
Photo: Mario Rovirosa, CEO of Ferrer.
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