The BioRegion: Facts & Figures

The BioRegion is the biotechnology, biomedicine and medical technology cluster in Catalonia, which is made up of companies, research bodies, administrations, and support structures for networking and knowledge and innovation transfer. Biocat is the organization that drives the BioRegion.

Biotechnology is currently a driving force behind economic growth in Catalonia and the BioRegion, an internationally successful model that brings together all the potential a strategic sector requires: political participation, a diverse and competitive business fabric, above-average growth in Europe, entrepreneuring spirit, critical mass of researchers, prestigious universities, good geographic location, excellent level of innovation and dedication of all stakeholders involved. Furthermore, there is a high level of nanotechnology, clinical research, structural biology and technology platforms, applied to key fields like oncology, neurosciences, personalized medicine and cardiovascular diseases.

Barcelona, key city in global biotechnology

Thanks to all of these elements, the international sector has high hopes for the BioRegion, as they see Barcelona being one of the key cities in the global biotech panorama in the next years. This is made clear at events like the BIO convention, in the United States, where Catalonia stood out (in 2009, 50% of Spanish participation was from Catalonia. Spain had the third largest participation, behind France and Germany and ahead of Canada).

The BioRegion of Catalonia has also become one of the main biotechnology hubs in Spain, leading the ranking of number of companies (25%), entrepreneurship (25%) –which clearly surpasses the level of many European regions- and R&D investment (31%), and also leads Spanish ranking of biotech companies with patents and those in the application process.

Over the past years, five bioregions have been created in Spain, grouped in the Spanish BioRegions Network (RBR): BioBasque (Basque Country), BioRegion of Catalonia, Bioval (Valencia), Madrid Biocluster and Andalusia BioRegion. Other regions are also in the process of organizing their own bioclusters –Canarias BioRegion, BioRegion of Extremadura, BioRegion of Aragón, BioRegion of Navarra and BIOIB (Balearic Islands)– which will join this association in the future.

Excellence in red biotech or healthcare

As analyzed in the Biocat Report 2009, there is a clear predominance of red biotech in the BioRegion of Catalonia; small companies (60% of all biotech companies have less than 10 employees) created recently (more than half were created after 2000); top research centers and institutes on a national and international level, which employ highly qualified personnel and focus mainly on research in fields like oncology (60% of centers), the nervous system (42%) and cardiology (40%).