Biotechnology, biomedicine and ICT, debate topics at upcoming series of CTecno breakfasts
Montserrat Vendrell will explain how to address new challenges in biotechnology and health using ICT on 22 May. Success stories from Intelligent Pharma and SocialDiabetes will also be discussed.
By Biocat
The biotechnology, biomedicine and ICT sectors are strategic for Catalonia, with clear opportunities for innovation, internationalization and growth. How do they fit together? What solutions can each offer the others? Computational chemistry and e-Health are examples of this interrelation. A necessary synergy that, when well integrated with institutions and productive sectors, can only be positive. The Technological Circle of Catalonia (CTecno), with collaboration from Biocat, is devoting their networking breakfast on 22 May to this topic.
Biocat CEO Montserrat Vendrell will participate in the event, giving a talk entitled Technology to address new challenges in biotechnology and health. Afterwards, entrepreneurs Ignasi Belda, CEO of Intelligent Pharma, and Víctor Bautista, CEO of SocialDiabetes, will explain their success stories.
Intelligent Pharma and other companies in the sector have been working for more than a decade on R&D in new computational technology, mainly based on artificial intelligence and supercomputing, to reduce costs and speed up the drug design process. Drug discovery is a long (some 12 years), expensive (approximately one thousand million euros) and risky (only one in 15 projects end up in a viable drug) process. Furthermore, there is a downward trend in the number of new drugs approved each year by healthcare authorities, while R&D investment is growing exponentially. One of the reasons behind this is probably that in most cases drugs are still designed through a fairly artisanal process, guided by human intuition and little use of ICT in key decision making. Intelligent Pharma, based in the Barcelona Science Park and winner of the 2008 BioEmprenedorXXI award, has subsidiaries in 3 countries and clients in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia.
Víctor Bautista, who defines himself as a self-taught, natural-born IT specialist, founded the company in 2010 after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. SocialDiabetes has been recognized by Unesco and the United Nations as the best health application in 2012. This is thanks to the development of an innovative self-management system for diabetes —with mobile and online applications— that provides those suffering from this disease with a virtual assistant for round-the-clock control and also allows them to share their experiences online with other diabetics. Additionally, this system incorporates telematic medical care in real time, meaning that a doctor can control patients remotely and modify their insulin dosage and carbohydrate intake. The greatest benefit this brings to patients is that it makes them more autonomous and reduces the risks of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia.
In Catalonia alone there are some 410,000 diagnosed cases of diabetes. So far, SocialDiabetes has more than 11,000 registered users around the world. Spain, the United States and Latin America are the leading countries in number of users.
The event will be moderated by Xavier Monzó, director of the ICA in Catalonia.
Registration (free)
You can follow the debate on Twitter @CTecno_cat and @biocat_cat with the hashtags #TIC #eHealth and #biotech
Date: 22 May 2013
Time: 8:45 to 10 am
Venue: Barcelona Activa • Auditorium • C/ Llacuna, 162-164 • Barcelona (map)
Questions: CTecno • Tel. +34 93 300 80 38 • comunicacio@ctecno.net
| Organized by: | Collaborators: |
 |  |