On Dec. 2, the city of Barcelona and the public organization Biocat signed an agreement to promote biotechnology under the brand Barcelona Biotech. The agreement aims to promote Barcelona as prominent location for activities in this sector.

STAFF | DECEMBER 7TH, 2010

The United Nations summit devoted to the analysis of the Millennium Development Goals, held in New York, was focused especially on the level of economic aid pledged by richer countries. However, little has been said about science, especially in two areas crucial to development, food and health.

XAVIER PUJOL GEBELLÍ | SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2010

ACC1Ó will celebrate on Thursday, June 17, the TECNIO Forum, the leading market of supply and demand for the technology sector in Catalonia as part of the Biz Barcelona celebration.

14 june 2010

While from the United States the Spanish biotechnology sector is being cast as one of the most promising and "revolutionary" in the world, experts warn of the profound transformation that the economic crisis may provoke in an industry whose dependence on large drug manufacturers is more than evident. The local sector also warns that restrictive measures in Spain could "generate distrust" abroad.

Xavier Pujol Gebellí | 20 may 2010

Contract manufacturing is the outsourcing by manufacturers of one or more activities that constitute the value chain of their product which includes: research, design and development, manufacturing, assembly, testing, packaging, sales and marketing. This search engine, provided by Biocat, is a very useful tool to facilitate the search for business opportunities and potential partners between Catalan companies in other industries who want to convert their business and enter the medical technology sector.

In recent years, biotechnology has experienced an unprecedented revolution. The techniques that have been developed up until now, particularly in genetics, are opening up a wide range of new lines of research and promising applications. At the same time, these advances are uncovering new challenges for the field. Researcher Pere Puigdomènech spoke to local high school students in La Seu d'Urgell, in Spain’s Catalonia region, about the future of biotechnology, its opportunities, satisfactions, difficulties and new potential goals that involve not only researchers but also society at large.

Octavi Planells | 11 may 2010

In addition to Al Gore and climate change, contemporary society faces other inconvenient truths, such as those arising from certain uses of genetic engineering. Michael J. Sandel, Professor of Political Philosophy at Harvard University, gave a few examples of how prickly the ethical implication of science can be in a lecture at the Centre for Contemporary Culture (CCCB) in Barcelona on March 3. Sandel focused his presentation on explaining where, according to him, the moral foundations underlying the social rejection of designing children “a la carte” through genetic engineering techniques truly lie. The expert also moderated a public debate among participants that was highly charged due to the provocative nature of the subject.

Octavio Planells | 7 may 2010

Difficulties in finding funding, above all venture capital —mainly due to the lack of specialized companies— and the need to incorporate executives with international management knowledge and experience that can drive business development are the main challenges facing the biotech sector in Catalonia and Spain. Carlos Buesa, CEO of Oryzon Genomics and vice-president of Asebio, highlighted these issues in his presentation to the Spanish Business Forum, held yesterday at the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago. This was just one of the many events prior to the official inauguration of the BIO convention, the most important international fair in the biotech sector, which will be inaugurated this morning (9.45 am, local time) in the capital of Illinois.

5 may 2010

Biocat and the Spanish Federation of Healthcare Technology Companies (Fenin) have signed an agreement to analyze, improve and promote training and information programs in the field of healthcare innovation in Catalonia. According to the president of Fenin Catalunya, Ramon Roca, “This agreement represents a real breakthrough to make innovative technology available to companies associated with Fenin Catalunya and biomedical companies that make up the Bioregion of Catalonia by granting them increased access to key training and information generated by both entities to facilitate their development and projection as well as form projects of common interest.” In this sense, both entities have agreed to jointly market their services that may be of interest to their respective groups.

4 may 2010

The groups at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) headed by Ernest Giralt (Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology) and Miquel Pons (Structural and Computational Biology) are to develop research projects with Catalan biotech companies. The groups will work with Intelligent Pharma and Lead Molecular Design, respectively, to identify more efficient methods to obtain drugs. The IRB Barcelona groups have been awarded 200,000€ and 100,000€ respectively by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, through the programme “Transmisión de Conocimiento a la Empresa” (TRACE -Transmission of Knowledge to Enterprise). This programme seeks to promote interaction between agents working in the science and technology sectors; in this case basic research labs and companies are involved.

29 march 2010

The list is incomplete and full of uncertainties and ambiguities. However, the effort made by the MIT seems useful to see how 50 leading companies in various fields address, which from the prestigious American centre, is covered under the term of innovation. This is a concept that, as in other areas, shows significant differences between the United States and Europe.

Malén Ruiz de Elvira |16 March 2010

They innovate in health, they have potential growth and they need an injection of capital of 200,000 Euros to 2 million Euros to go ahead with their business plans. These are the main common points of the nine Catalan companies which have presented their projects to hundreds of investors at the Barcelona Healthcare Investment Forum and the Private Investors Forum and Family Offices of IESE -a historical event with already 43 editions-. It has taken place at the main office of the Barcelona Medical Association (COMB).

15 march 2010

Portal of the Spanish Federation of Biotechnology (FEBiotec), an alliance of several biotechnologists Associations operating locally throughout Spain. Thus, it is intended as a unit to represent governments, institutions, enterprises and society in general.

The celebration in Barcelona of the congress of Europe's most important biotechnology partnership, the BIO-Europe Spring 2010, already exceeds all registration records before its start on Monday the 8th of March. Currently, the figures the congress moves are around 1,750 attendees, 62 exhibitors, 1,030 companies, 43 represented countries and over 8,500 'one-to-one' meetings.

4 March 2010

From the 8th till the 10th of March, the world's largest life science partnering conference, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will take place at the CCIB’s Convention Centre in Barcelona. The event has been organised by the EBD Group and Biocat that coordinates the Local Host Committee, which is made up of the Government of Catalonia, ACC1Ó, Barcelona City Council, Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, Genoma Spain, the Spanish Association of Bioenterprises (Asebio), Invest in Spain and the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI).

3 March 2010