From challenges to impact: 2025 overview of the Advanced Therapies Hub of Catalonia

Mid-2023 was a time of effervescence and opportunities for the advanced therapies sector in Catalonia. The region led in national research, with 60% of all scientific activity in this arena and half of the international benchmark hospitals. Despite this potential, the sector also faced structural challenges: it needed a country-wide strategy to coordinate decentralized capacities, guarantee financial sustainability, attract specialized talent and help scale up new therapies in the industry. A new stage for turning this potential into real impact kicked off when the Advanced Therapies Center of Catalonia (CTAC) was created with an announced investment of €60 million and a group was set up to promote the hub.

Now, in 2025, the sector is wondering: how have we advanced from that starting point and where are we in terms of consolidating our leadership?

Over the past two years, innovation in advanced therapies has become a strategic priority for Europe and Spain. Collaboration among leading regions has been bolstered by European projects like PRECISEU, led by Catalonia and the only Regional Innovation Valley in Europe to specialize in personalized medicine and advanced therapies. At the same time, the national consortium CERTERA has allowed Catalan organizations to attract 64% of Spanish funding for facilities and development of advanced therapy medicinal products. Additionally, the PERTE for Vanguard Health has enabled the roll out of facilities and accelerated knowledge transfer between the healthcare system and industry, generating a favorable environment for transferring projects to clinical practice.

Catalonia is fully aligned with these dynamics, with more than 60 active studies and 21 treatments in clinical development, which is 70% of all this activity in Spain, as the 2024 BioRegion of Catalonia Report shows.

This new context is a step forward in organizing and invigorating its advanced therapies ecosystem. In 2023, the Government of Catalonia put Biocat in charge of coordinating the Advanced Therapies Hub, with the mission to connect research and industry generated in the public healthcare system and R&D with the industrial and business fabric to ensure that the knowledge truly reaches patients and the market.

This mission has led to the creation and roll out of the Advanced Therapies Hub of Catalonia (ATMP Catalonia), previously known as the Advanced Therapies Network of Catalonia, a project promoted and coordinated by Biocat that in 2025 has more than 70 members, including benchmark hospitals, research centers, companies, investors and public and private organizations. The initiative aims to ensure patients have access to innovative solutions, grow the number of clinical trials and fuel the industrial development and social and economic impact of this strategic sector.

To invigorate the sector, the hub has set up eight themed work groups, each led by experts and geared towards key challenges: training and retaining talent, public-private partnership models, patient and market access, bioengineering and bioprinting, emerging therapies, gene and cell therapy and international projection. These groups have identified needs, established roadmaps, mapped capacities and promoted specific actions to accelerate development and transfer of advanced therapies in Catalonia.

One of the first actions under this initiative was to launch ATMP Catalyst, the first European Union accelerator specializing in advanced therapies projects and startups, promoted by Biocat with support from the Catalan Ministry of Research and Universities and the Barcelona City Council, and collaboration from Leitat and the Barcelona Science Park. The program, which will support 18 projects over three years through annual calls, provides specialized mentoring, training, laboratory access and connections with international experts and investors, helping them take the leap from basic research to preclinical and clinical validation.

Biocat CEO Robert Fabregat says, “ATMP Catalyst will be a key tool for strengthening, expanding and consolidating the advanced therapies hub in Catalonia, as part of a global strategy to make the region a European benchmark in this arena, with Barcelona as the capital and driver of healthcare innovation.”

All these activities will culminate in a new website, coming in late 2025.

The consolidation of ATMP Catalonia can be seen in its powerful, specialized production and research centers. These include Hospital Clinic-IDIBAPS, the only Spanish center that has developed two CAR-T for different types of cancer, both with AEMPS approval and one classified PRIME by the EMA, which it produces for 13 Spanish hospitals and has treated over 500 patients. Hospital Clinic Global Director of Advanced Therapies Noelia Mateo shared that, “This year we will kick off our first international project with 5 other countries and several manufacturing and administration centers. This way we can export our model in line with EMA requirements so the products can be produced simultaneously at different locations.”

Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona has developed its own platform for pediatric advanced therapies; Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (VHIO and VHIR) stands out in production of TILs, CAR-T and viral vectors; Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau has set up an Advanced Therapies Unit for personalized medicines; Creatio (UB), Cellab and Leitat are accelerating project transfer, and the Blood and Tissue Bank has centralized production and clinical validation. 

This solid ecosystem is further bolstered by an increasingly powerful and international business and investment fabric. Noteworthy members include startups like SpliceBio, which recently closed one of the largest rounds of funding in the sector and is developing innovative gene therapies for rare diseases, and OneChain Immunotherapeutics, a spinoff of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute working on latest generation CAR-T for solid tumors and blood cancers. These companies coexist and collaborate with large pharmaceutical corporations in Catalonia, including AstraZeneca, Almirall, Amgen and Roche, through strategic partnerships, innovation projects and clinical development in advanced therapies, contributing to knowledge and technology transfer globally. The sector also has the support of specialized investors like Invivo Capital, Ysios Capital and Asabys Partners that have been key in accelerating the scale up of Catalan startups and spinoffs and attracting international capital, making Catalonia a magnet for investment in biomedicine and healthcare.

This group of stakeholders has kept Catalonia fifth on the European ranking and eighth on the global ranking in clinical trials, with noteworthy activity in areas like oncology, ophthalmology, diseases of the nervous system, endocrine diseases and metabolic diseases. According to data online, there are more than 70 organizations, 136 projects and products registered, 44 in the clinical phases and 86 in preclinical phases, with 6 products approved recently.

Lluís Pareras, founding partner of InVivo Capital and member of the group promoting the hub, summed it up as follows: “A country-wide strategy in advanced therapies will allow Catalonia to lead innovation in this emerging field. It will promote scientific research and development, as well as attracting talent and investment to the sector. We don’t want to be left behind; patients have to continue having access to one of the best healthcare systems in the world.”

The overview for 2023-2025 confirms that Catalonia has taken a leap forward in consolidating its leadership in advanced therapies. The ecosystem has gone from fragmented to coordinated, with a network of more than 70 organizations, a collaborative digital platform and groundbreaking initiatives like the ATMP Catalyst accelerator. The impact of all this can be seen in data and a productive and scientific capacity thanks to which Catalonia remains among the European benchmarks.

The impact is reflected in data and in a productive and scientific capacity that keeps Catalonia among the leading references in Europe.

However, there are still significant challenges: ensuring standardization and equitable access throughout the region, consolidating new funding and assessment models, scaling up production and transfer to clinical practice, and continuing to attract international investment and talent. Robert Fabregat concludes, “We have the capacities and the opportunities are there, now we have to build the connections we need to take advantage and make the most of them.”

With a country-wide strategy and collective governance structure, Catalonia is prepared to tackle new horizons: internationalization, real impact on patients and healthcare systems, and consolidation of a sustainable model that ensures advanced therapies are accessible and transformative for all of society.