The board and team of CataloniaBio & HealthTech wish you a happy 2024, especially the more than 225 members of the entity, collaborating entities and companies, and health professionals.
Now is a good time to look back and share the main milestones and the work we have carried out during this 2023 that we have just closed. A year of growth in which we have been able to maintain meeting points, training, content and boosting the competitiveness of all actors in the health sector.
Work by areas of interest
We have renewed the internal work committees, made up of members of the association . This 2023, the Business Development, Digital and Innovation committees have started working.
- In terms of innovation, we have promoted seminars to cover topics of interest such as tax incentives for companies in the health sector or on the tools that health companies have at their disposal to protect innovation, through patents or trade secrets . With an eye on Europe, more than 40 people were able to attend the workshop on access to EU funding . In addition, CataloniaBio & HealthTech has debuted as an AEI participating in 3 projects in the 2023 call, and the innovation committee was the one that marked the topic of debate at this year’s UnConference.
- The business development committee has also promoted new initiatives. Like the “GO International” webinars, with the aim of getting to know other ecosystems and markets, which this year have taken us to the United Kingdom , Aquitaine (France) and Canada . We have received 9 delegations of international agents in Catalonia to invest or seek commercial alliances, of which we highlight Singapore, Germany, Colombia, China, Mexico and Canada. In addition to webinars with international investment funds for financing early stages in the sector or a workshop to provide competitiveness tools to laboratories through the application of the Lean methodology . This same area of interest includes the Lessons Learned session focused on the path to drug development . focused on the path of drug development.
- From the digital field, the experience of the tech tour was repeated and expanded in the context of the Mobile World Congress. The committee promoted a Lessons Learned session focused on cybersecurity in the healthcare field and has participated in several events, giving voice to partner companies. The last one , a round table at Tech Spirit Barcelona on AI .
The big events
More than 350 people attended the 2023 CataloniaBio Night , at the CaixaForum Barcelona, where Avinent and SpliceBio received the Biosuccess award . And nearly 500 people gathered at the Specipig headquarters, in Prat de Llobregat, for the most important event of the summer in the sector, the BBQ .
This 2023, Connection Day was celebrated for the first time , with a great response from partners and the sector: 224 registrants, 115 institutions and companies, 80 B2B meetings and 40 exhibitors. An unbeatable start to what must be the reference space for connections in the health sector. In the context of Connection Day, we presented the Study on investment in the health sector in Catalonia , a document promoted by CataloniaBio & Healthtech, together with EY.
We attended this year’s edition of BIOSPAIN under a grouped stand, with the presence of 6 of our associated companies. For the first time, we brought international visibility to companies in the cluster by acting as an umbrella exhibiting entity. In addition, as part of the BIOSPAIN 2023 congress, more than 20 meetings were held between the CataloniaBio & HealthTech team and various national and international entities attending the congress.
The Unconference, this year focused on advanced therapies , brought together more than 120 professionals and is consolidating itself as a space of reference on the debate on the future of health.
The 2023 Assembly was also expanded for the first time, with a complementary forum focused on the new startup law and how it affects the sector in a concrete way.
Growth, economy and positioning
There are already 30 companies that, in three years and three editions, have completed the BIOMED ScaleUP program to support corporate growth, thus addressing one of the sector’s challenges: the consolidation and scaling of Catalan health companies.
In 2023, the CEO Council meetings have focused on economic matters. With nearly 150 attendees in this year’s 5 editions, we were joined as guests by Antón Costas , Boi Ruiz , Núria Mas , Xavier Prats and Javier Ponce .
We have continued to participate in the sector’s debate spaces and present in the strategic initiatives of the city and the country, as for example connected through ACCIÓ with an intercluster day with Ecuador, in the reception of entities with the President of the Generalitat before attending BIOBoston or taking our best practice cases to Córdoba (Argentina) . We have participated and supported the administration in the National Pact for Industry, the Strategic Plan for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, among other spaces and initiatives. We continue in different working groups and commissions to defend and promote the interests of our associates, in the Department of Health, the Biocat board of trustees, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Barcelona Global, CDTI, the Alliance of Clusters Salud España, or the S3 Community of Practice, among others.
In activities alone, summarized in figures, we have organized 29 events in which more than 1900 people have registered . We have also shared more than 160 news of milestones achieved by members, we have more than 39,000 followers on social networks ( X and Linkedin ) and we have welcomed 36 new members in one year .
2024 awaits us with new challenges and new proposals to continue working to increase the competitiveness of the health sector, we hope to have the same support and collaboration from all partners. If you are not yet a member of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, contact us and become a member!
Discover more about CataloniaBio & HealthTech:
CataloniaBio & HealthTech is the transversal association formed by more than 220 leading companies and knowledge agents in R&D and manufacturing in the health and life sciences sector in Catalonia. Its mission is to increase the competitiveness and size of companies by generating new products and services that improve people’s health through the promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship and networking, and to position Catalonia as one of the main health hubs in the world.
