Why to watch out Spain
The strong investors interest was welcomed by the 30 company leaders who presented their technologies and products. Contentwise, the topics ranged from novel drugs to combat antimicrobial resistance (Remab, Vaxdyn), cancer (Ability Pharma, Leadartis), Alzheimers disease (Tetraneuron) or inner ear disorders (Spiral Therapeutics) to innovative diagnostic solutions (NBS Newborn solutions) or drug discovery technologies (Aniling), regenerative medicine approaches (Regemat3D, Qrem) and algae-based products for the use in cosmetics or agriculture (AlgaeEnergy, Neoalgae).
Strong local investors community
During the last ten years, the Spanish Biotech sector significantly improved in terms of maturity and financings, underlined Ion Arocena, CEO of ASEBIO. According to the latest Spanish biotech report, 26 deals with €63.6m took place in 2016, 158 alliances were announced and 43 startups were founded, he said. From his perspective, these numbers demonstrate the hugh development the sector has made since 2008, when the Spanish government decided to put extra money into the life sciences. Back than, some people believed that Life Sciences are not a real industry. Today, we have successfully established a dynamic ecosystem which is the basis for a strong local investors community and which in turn attracts now the more and more international investors, Arocena pointed out. For this year, the numbers also indicate further growth. Arocena: "We already now obtained the level of the whole year of 2016."
One of the key players in the Spanish biotech ecosystem is Barcelona-based Ysios Capital. Founded in 2008, the VC has €191.4m in assets under management through its two funds. It already invested in 11 Spanish companies which until today raised a total of €300m. Only €15m came from us and this demonstrates the value local investors can have, said Raul Marin-Ruiz, Partner from Ysios Capital.
BIO Spain in 2018
Because of the success of the first edition of the Investor Day, the organisers already look forward to the next event that will shed light on the Spanish biotech sector. In September next year, we expect around 3,000 people joining for BIO Spain, said David Fernández from ASEBIO.
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