26 Catalan companies and institutions to participate in BIO San Diego 2014

A total of 22 companies and 4 institutions make up the Catalan delegation to BIO San Diego 2014, the most important biotechnology convention in the world, which has been held for the past 20 years. This year’s edition will be in San Diego (California), from 23 to 26 June, with the slogan Connect, Partner, Innovate.

California is home to one of the three main life sciences clusters in the United States and 28% of the country’s biotechnology pipeline. Activity in this sector is concentrated mainly in the areas around San Diego and San Francisco, particularly in the fields of biopharmaceutical products, industrial biotechnology, biofuel and diagnostic and medical devices, among others.

The scope of the BIO International Convention and the profile of participants ensure that companies and research bodies that participate will have multiple business and collaboration opportunities. And the figures back this up: the 2013 edition, held in Chicago, brought together more than 13,500 delegates from 62 countries and 1,722 exhibitors, and a record-breaking 25,573 partnering meetings were held.

The BioRegion of Catalonia at BIO 2014

The BioRegion of Catalonia will have a booth at BIO 2014, in the Spanish pavilion, measuring 223 square meters. Other bioregions, like those of Andalusia and the Basque Country, will also be present there.

In addition to the 22 Catalan companies, 4 institutions will also participate: ACCIÓ, the Government of Catalonia business competitiveness agency; the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Barcelona (IRB); the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) Biomedical Engineering Research Center (CREB); and Biocat, which is coordinating the Catalan delegation to BIO for the eighth consecutive year.

6 Catalan companies with their own booth

Of all the companies participating in BIO 2014 with the Catalan delegation, 6 will have their own booth in a privileged location. One of them is biotechnology firm Oryzon Genomics, focused on epigenetics. In addition to having their own booth, Oryzon CEO Carlos Buesa will participate in the seminar on funding in the field of biotechnology being held by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) on Sunday 22 June before the official inauguration of BIO 2014. And on Thursday 26 June, Buesa will give a conference on public-private cooperation in the Spanish biotechnology sector.

Other companies with their own booth include Bioiberica, Specific Pig and Plasmia Biotech, which aim to scout for new business opportunities and forge new collaborations. Laboratorios Salvat has been participating in BIO since 2007 and this year their main goal is to find commercial partners for a pediatric product they are developing for the United States. Another Catalan company with its own booth is Bcn Peptides, which manufactures bioactive peptides for pharmaceutical and veterinary applications.

Partnering tools for participants

As in other years, all participating companies and organizations will be able to set up one-to-one partnering meetings with the rest of the participants at the BIO convention. Of the companies that make up the Catalan delegation, 16 will participate in this mode, launched for the first time by Biocat and ICEX. This type of registration, which is more affordable than that available through the fair itself, sets partnering meetings at the exhibitors pavilions instead of in the Business Forum, a separate space from the exhibit area.

At this year’s BIO convention, companies BioIngenium, ReadyCell and Anaxomics aim to boost internationalization. Other companies are participating in BIO 2014 to scout for partners and investors, including Cebiotex, GP Pharm and Sagetis Biotech. Medtep, a success story in the field of e-health, will also participate in this year’s congress. The pharmaceutical companies travelling to San Diego with the Catalan delegation include Mitelos Bioscience, Gebro Pharma and Iproteos. These companies are looking to raise awareness of their new products or to market their proprietary technology.

Finally, in the field of biotechnology consultancy, participants in this year’s BIO will include Spherium Biomed and Oficina Ponti, who see the convention as “a great opportunity to establish collaborations with foreign companies and offer to manage their patent portfolios in Europe”. Rounding out the Catalan delegation to the convention are Bionure, Ferrer in Code, Ability Pharmaceuticals and Hexascreen.

In addition to the members of the delegation, other Catalan companies participating in BIO San Diego 2014 include Intelligent Pharma, Lacer, Caixa Capital Risc, Almirall and Grifols. In total, there will be more than seventy professionals from the BioRegion travelling to the fair.

For more information, see the press release or delegation catalog.

Get all the news on Catalonia at BIO 2014 at http://www.biocat.cat/bio2014

Follow the convention on Twitter @biocat_en or @BIO_Convention with the hashtag #BIO2014.