Facts & Figures

 

Main biotechnology figures in Spain

 

The number of companies engaged in biotechnology-related activities amounted to 942 in 2008, with a growth rate of 23.3% over previous year. Of these, 305 are dedicated biotech companies.

The total employment figure is 108,374 workers for 2008, 4.3% higher than the previous year, and private domestic R&D expenditure in biotechnology equals 460 million euros in 2008, a 22.5% higher. This figure is twice bigger as compared to what was allocated to R&D in 2005, which reached 201 million euros, comprising the great efforts in R&D the companies who use biotechnology in their business are doing.

The bioindustry turnover is shown, reaching 31.1 billion euros in 2008, an 18.9% increase over the previous year, according to the Biotechnology Module in the Technological Innovation Survey collected in the ASEBIO Report 2009.

The Science Park of Madrid, jointly with ASEBIO, has identified 430 biotechnological inventions within 2009. Of these, 84% are requests and the remaining 16% pertain to the applications granted. The amount of inventions submitted via the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), being 57% of the whole, stands out, followed by Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) files.

More than 50% of these inventions pertain to ASEBIO institutions and for about 40% of them, a business is the holder. The companies who are partnering with ASEBIO significantly increase the volume of data over the previous year, with 117 applications and 42 awards identified - most of them were submitted via PCT, followed by the U.S. registry.

Most of these corporations operate in the field of human health, followed at some distance from those working in the area of food biotechnology.

As for scientific publications, from Spanish companies in various magazines or specialized media, a total of 177 impacts were counted, belonging to 24 entities. As compared with the previous year (140 impacts from 22 companies), this shows the increased activity of these companies.  The regions where more firms were created were Andalusia, with 26% of the total, followed by Catalonia with 24%; Valencia, with 9% and Madrid, with 7%. Besides, there were 101 alliances accounted during this year, 42% of them were executed between biotech companies and public entities, 38% jointly with another biotech company and 28% with businesses with a user profile.

Among the financial operations conducted by private parties, in the last year Cellerix (Grupo Genetrix) stands off, heading the list for an amount of 27.2 million euros. This is the second round of international financing of this Spanish company, who are working in the development of medicinal products from stem cells, with the involvement of Ysios Capital Partners, Life Science Partners, Ventech, Bankinter, Capital Riesgo Madrid, JV Risk Technologies and with the key contribution of the Genetrix Group.

The second largest operation in the year, even though being closed at the beginning of 2010, was made by the biopharmaceutical division of Lipotec Group, GP-Pharm, through a syndicated loan. This operation, for a total of 20 million euros, had the involvement of the following entities: Caixa Catalunya, Banco de Sabadell, Bancaja, Institut Catalá de Finances and the Official Credit Institute (Instituto de Crédito Oficial, ICO). In turn, Noscira, a Zeltia Group company, obtained a third round of funding, reaching 11.1 million euros. This operation in 2009 was underwritten by private investors.

First time ever, ASEBIO's partnering companies consider  Internationalisation as their priority for 2010 and the biggest barrier to achieving this is the lack of financial resources. The maturation of the business plans and the need for access to new markets in the current difficult economic times, are partly responsible for turning the foreign business into a priority in the growth strategy of the Spanish biotechnology industry.

 In any case, the need for Internationalisation is not new, since approximately 35% of ASEBIO's partners do have some degree of international activity (5% higher than last year), being these activities mainly exporting products or services, the involvement in the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union and also  alliances / collaborations with international research -international sales amounts 500 million euros. The contribution of international activities to the turnover of the companies was on average 26% in 2009.

The markets that businesses believe are priorities in their strategy for Internationalisation and for the industry as a whole, are primarily and almost equally located in the European Union countries, mainly in countries like UK, Italy, Germany, Portugal, France and the Nordic countries and the United States. Following these, we find countries like Canada, China, Brazil, Japan, Singapore and the American Southern Cone.

 

About ASEBIO

The Spanish Bioindustry Association (ASEBIO) (www.asebio.com) brings together 165 companies, associations, foundations, universities, technology and research centers that undertake their activities either directly or indirectly related to biotechnology in Spain. It represents around 70% biotechnology companies presents in Spain.

ASEBIO has acted as a meeting and promotion platform for those organizations interested in the development of the national biotechnology scene since 1999. ASEBIO therefore works in close collaboration with regional, national and European governments together with all those social organizations interested in the use of biotechnology for improving the quality of life, the environment and the generation of skilled employment.

Its broad membership base makes ASEBIO the most appropriate scenario for meeting the challenge of developing the biotechnology sector and taking advantage of the innovation opportunities presented through biotechnology as an economic and social growth vector in Spain.

ASEBIO belongs to and receives support from EuropaBio, the European Association of Bioindustries and it is a member of the CEOE (The Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations).

 

About SODENA

Sodena, Sociedad de Desarrollo de Navarra, S.A. (www.sodena.com) is the main instrument of the Government of Navarra for corporate development in the region.

Sodena’s main financial instrument for addressing investment projects is venture capital, in which it always takes a minority stake (between 5% and 45%) within a limited timeframe (no more than 10 years) and with a clear aim of profitability apart from enhancing and placing Navarra’s position as an advanced referent in every investment.

Besides the well known success in Renewable Energies, the clear bet on the development of Nanotechnology and the commitment to supporting Internationalization projects, Sodena has an outstanding presence in the Biotech sector, having committed €37M in 9 companies and 4 funds, 2 of them specialized in the sector. Navarra will host the next biannual Congress of Biospain (September 2010).

Contact Biospain 2010

David Fernández
Lucía Cecilia

dfernandez@biospain2010.org
lcecilia@biospain2010.org
+34 912 109 374