13 Jul Investment in Spanish biotech is at an all-time high
The Spanish Bioindustry Association (AseBio), where Laminar Pharma is a member, has published its latest annual report on the state of the biotech sector in Spain, with updated data from 2020. The document’s most important finding is that the industry has grown substantially during the harshest year of the Covid-19 pandemic, with record investment figures across the board.
During the presentation of the report, AseBio’s president, Ana Polanco, said we must “continue to work to place biotechnology at the heart of Spain’s recovery, so our industrial network can prosper and innovation can reach patients”.
The sector is on the right track to achieve this goal: mirroring the growth we have experienced at Laminar Pharma, Spanish companies collectively have also attracted more private capital and international investment during 2020, surpassing €150M.
The report highlights crowdfunding as an important novel financing tool. Just as our company completed its successful crowdfunding round, the Spanish biotech sector also gathered over €10M by this method.
The presentation of the document was also attended by Spanish Science and Innovation Minister Pedro Duque, who said: “At the Government we want to keep in step with the growth of the biotech sector. It’s a surge of hope in difficult times.”
AseBio points out that the association’s member companies are becoming increasingly global, with 19% more international presence during 2020. As of that year, 35 of the group’s businesses — including ours! —are distributed across 48 countries. The report showcases information about our first pediatric clinical trial in the United States, which is underway at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey for the treatment of children with brain tumors.
Higher scientific output, higher contribution to GDP
Another important finding is that our sector punches above its weight in scientific output. Spanish biotech researchers have produced 3.2% of the country’s scientific papers, which are cited 30% more than average, according to the document.
With these figures, Spain has become the eighth leading country in biotech by number of publications. All this scientific knowledge translates to the market, too, as companies have increased their launch of products and services by 70% in 2020— largely in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
These impressive achievements are possible because talent and dedication are at the heart of what we do. In fact, we are proud to belong to the sector with the highest percentage of researchers among employees. Within Spanish biotech companies, nearly 60% of the workforce are women working in R&D, a testament to the field’s commitment to diversity and equality of opportunities.
Together, we and Spain’s other biotech companies have produced an income of €10,100M, which is equivalent to 0.8% of the national GDP, and the sector generates 117,700 jobs, which is 0.6% of Spain’s total.
Perhaps most encouragingly, AseBio’s report finds that, during 2020, society’s confidence in scientific knowledge rose by 30%, as more people agreed upon science’s importance to inform policy-decisions. Nearly 4 out of every 5 Spaniards see innovation in a positive light, and this bolsters our spirits and our mission of delivering brand-new treatments to the market for the benefit of all.
You can download the full report, which includes detailed chapters on investment, financing, perception and more, at AseBio’s website (https://asebio.com/en/know-the-sector/asebio-report).
(Spanish https://asebio.com/conoce-el-sector/informe-asebio)