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Mosaic Biomedicals wins fifth edition of BioEmprenedorXXI Awards

This spin-off of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology already has its first drug in the pre-clinical phase, which can “lower brain-tumor recurrence by 51%.”

11.12.2012

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By Biocat

Mosaic Biomedicals has won the top award in the fifth edition of the BioEmprenedorXXI program, presented yesterday at an event before more than one hundred people from the life sciences sector and representatives from the promoting organizations (“la Caixa”, Barcelona Activa, Biocat, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce).

Devoted to developing new personalized therapies to effectively eliminate tumor stem cells, Mosaic Biomedicals is a spin-off of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO). One of the researchers from this project, Judit Anido, explained that they already have their first product in the pre-clinical phases, which “can lower brain-tumor recurrence by 51%.” The award is endowed with €20,000 in cash, plus a series of training, internationalization, communication and incubation actions like acceleration courses at the University of Cambridge, participation in a benchmark international fair in the sector and the Biocapsules program, and one year of access to the technology available through the Barcelona Science Park (PCB).

Runners-up: Miru Medical Systems and ProteoDesign

The first runner-up, receiving €10,000, was Miru Medical Systems of the Teknon Foundation. Their project focuses on a device to ensure that medication administered to patients in hospital settings is correct. Dr. Pau Soler accepted the award, explaining the advantages of this device: “It increases patient safety, boosts efficiency of medical staff and saves hospitals a lot of money, because it allows them to bill each patient for exactly what was administered.”

ProteoDesign was the second runner-up, receiving €5,000. This spin-off of the University of Barcelona and Princeton University offers research services for the biopharmaceutical industry to develop safer, more efficient drugs to treat cancer, as an alternative to aggressive treatments like chemotherapy. One of the founders, Silvia Frutos, explained that this is a new project and that "without the BioEmprenedorXXI program we wouldn’t have come this far. We hope they continue giving new entrepreneurs a chance.”

Like the winner, the two runners-up will also participate in an international fair, receive legal guidance from the Rousaud Costas Duran law firm, and have access to PCB technology for one year.

The awards were presented by Executive Director for Business and Employment Services at Barcelona Activa Susana Tintoré, CEO of Caixa Capital Risc Carles Trenchs, Biocat CEO Montserrat Vendrell, Deputy Manager for Business Services at the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce Xavier Ricart, and Coordinator of the Fecyt Biocampus program Noelia Romero.

Five editions of successes: 141 projects, 146 jobs and €175,000 in prizes

Over these five years, BioEmprenedorXXI has received a total of 141 projects from companies and entrepreneurs and has awarded nearly €175,000 in cash prizes, in addition to the guidance and training activities for setting up the company. “Of all the applications received, 81 business projects have benefited from the guidance offered through this program and 34 of these projects have already become companies, while another 13 are in the process," explained Biocat Project Director Carlos Lurigados at the event yesterday. These companies have, to date, already created 146 new jobs.

Lurigados highlighted “the positive feedback on this program from participants, who rated it 8 out of 10”. Regarding the challenges for the future of BioEmprenedorXXI: “To create an environment favorable to technology transfer in southern Europe, we have to grow this program in terms of activities, contents, training, personalized guidance, internationalization, networking and investors.”

One example of a success story is the bioinformatics company Intelligent Pharma, which won the first edition of the BioEmprenedorXXI awards in 2008 and now has subsidiaries in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. From the third edition, in 2010, highlights include VCN Biosciences (of which Grifols recently acquired 40%) and iMicroQ.

Report on the BioEmprenedorXXI program (2007-2012)