BIO-Europe Spring returns to Barcelona with a record Catalan participation

BIO-Europe Spring (BES), the spring edition of the most important partnering conference in Europe for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, was held for the third time in 2017 in Barcelona following the success of the 2010 and 2013 editions.

Biocat and ACCIÓ led the Host Committee of the fair, organized by EBD Group. Apart from collaborating in the organization of BIO-Europe Spring Barcelona, ​​Biocat facilitated the participation of Catalan companies, negotiating favorable economic conditions and competitive advantages for their presence at the fair. As a result, around 200 delegates from more than 100 BioRegion companies and entities participated (71.8% of the total companies in Spain), thus doubling the Catalan representation compared to the previous edition.

The fair had a total of 65 exhibitors, of which 11 were Catalan companies and entities: Almirall, BCN Peptides, Esteve, Ferrer, Gebro Pharma, GP Pharm, Laboratorios Rubió, Mind the Byte, Oryzon Genomics, ZeClinics, and Biocat, who had its own 56 m2 booth to promote the BioRegion of Catalonia and also organized three sessions in the fair’s program. In addition, 8 Catalan companies gave a presentation to explain their business: Almirall, Chemotargets, Esteve, Gebro Pharma, Laboratorios Rubió, Minoryx Therapeutics, Oryzon Genomics and Solti.

The fair helped reaffirm the strategic position of Catalonia and Barcelona as leading international business centers in health and life sciences, bringing to the city more than 2,500 professionals from a total of 1,450 companies from across the globe. Around 15,070 partnering meetings were held at the fair, 20% more than in the 2016 edition, which was held in Stockholm.

International visibility for the BioRegion

The participating Catalan companies took advantage of the conference to establish international contacts and positively valued the fact that BIO-Europe Spring was held in Barcelona, ​​thus saving on travel costs and gaining visibility in both the exhibition space and in the program.

In this respect, during the BIO-Europe Spring event, Biocat and ACCIÓ organized various activities as members of the local Host Committee, such as receptions and other networking activities. Among other initiatives, Biocat coordinated the workshop Regenerative Medicines and their impact on Healthcare: from lab to market, during which representatives from various international regions (Canada, UK, Japan, Catalonia) discussed how to move scientific advances in regenerative medicine from the lab to the patient. Under the bioXclusters plus consortium, Biocat designed and coordinated Transatlantic cooperation in Precision Medicine, a dialogue session to compare business environments of Canada and Europe for the development and internationalization of personalized and precision medicine, using the example of Mosaic Biomedicals, a VHIO spin-off with a networking space. In addition, Biocat collaborated in and attended the UK Networking Breakfast, a networking breakfast organized by the UK Department for International Trade; and the Scandinavian and Catalan bridges on Biopharma, a breakfast meeting led by Denmark's ambassador to Spain and Mind the Byte to strengthen bridges between the Scandinavian and Catalan biopharmaceutical industries.

Emerging Catalan start-ups were also able to take advantage of this visibility: in fact, Start-up Slam Barcelona and HealthTech Start-up Competition, the two start-up competitions organized in collaboration with Biocat as part of the conference, awarded prizes to four local companies: Peptomyc, Transplant Biomedicals, Mowoot and Braingaze, with sponsorship by JnJ, RCD and Alta Life Sciences.