Biocat, committed to contract manufacturing to drive medical technology sector in Catalonia
Biocat, together with 22@Barcelona and ACC1Ó, has drafted a plan to implement contract manufacturing in the BioRegion of Catalonia. The aims: unite the medical technology cluster to create a sector that is strong in innovation and restructure the traditional industrial sectors. The presentation of this plan took place yesterday at the Colet Museum in Barcelona, explaining the guidelines for this plan and start-up of a new online search engine on the Biocat website that allows users to search for business opportunities and possible partners among Catalan companies.
One of Biocat’s strategic focal points —as the organization that coordinates, dynamizes and promotes the biotechnology, biomedicine and medical technology sector in Catalonia— is to foster the business competitiveness of all stakeholders in the BioRegion and contract manufacturing is an important strategy that will allow for the restructuring of companies in traditional industrial sectors that work with components related to the medical technology sector, as well as the international consolidation of participating businesses.
Contract manufacturing shows important growth in other European regions
Contract manufacturing outsources one or a number of the activities that make up a company’s value chain, a very common practice nowadays that generates great opportunities in business and economy of scale for the medical technology sector. According to Dr. Marta Príncep, director of Innovation at Biocat, “we want to restructure Catalonia’s traditional industrial fabric so it can participate in this strong cluster with great projection, the medical technology sector, for which contract manufacturing is an ideal tool to create positive synergies that allow for innovation and the creation of products with high added value”.
Xavier Ayneto, director of Innovation at the Grupo Idom consultancy, who collaborated to create the action plan, added, “contract manufacturing in the techmed sector has great potential and already shows important growth in other European regions. Catalonia must take advantage of its prestigious healthcare facilities to make this growth a reality in our regions as well”.
For Dr. Marta Príncep, the contract manufacturing strategy is key because the traditional business system is disappearing. “We must try to employ strategies like this one to strengthen clusters with high potential for growth, involving companies from other sectors that can restructure their products and services in order to participate in areas of excellence that are key to the future, like medical technology”.
The action plan includes 28 measures structured around strategic focal points: training (both for project managers and entrepreneurs), business cooperation, participation of Catalan companies in European projects, access to funding, driving research consortia, consulting on regulations related to the sector, and more.
Online contract manufacturing search engine
The first action in the area of business cooperation is the creation of an online contract manufacturing search engine, which allows users to search for business opportunities and possible partners among Catalan companies from other industrial sectors that want to restructure their activity and move into the medical technology sector. Biocat has started up this project, which is available on their website free of charge to all that wish to use it: http://www.biocat.cat/en/cercador-contract-manufacturing
With an intuitive, easy-to-use design, this tool allows users to search companies in the techmed sector in three steps (materials, techniques and therapeutic applications) in order to offer their services, particularly those related to manufacturing components and assembly, which are outsourcing priorities. Although this tool is focused on the business fabric in Catalonia, it is also takes into account the rest of Spain and other countries and, therefore, is available in three languages (Catalan, Spanish and English).
As the director of Innovation at Biocat affirmed, “this is one of the many tangible products that Biocat provides for stakeholders in the BioRegion in order to facilitate alliances, research needs and synergies among companies that belong to different sectors, which is key to growth of the BioRegion on a national and international level.”
- Action plan to develop contract manufacturing in the medical technology sector in Catalonia (Catalan)
- Contract manufacturing market study for the medical technology sector in Catalonia (Catalan)
- Success story: Health Solutions, by Fernando Alegria, Managing Director (Spanish)
- Success story: Gutmar, by Joan Martorell, CEO (Spanish)
- Success story: TMI, by Jaume Cabaní, director (Catalan)
- Related news (11/5/2010)
- Press release in Spanis (13/5/2010)
- Photo gallery (Flickr)
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