Fundación PONS hosted a new edition of the Innovators Forum this morning under the slogan “Biotechnological Innovation: Science with Impact”. The meeting, organised by PONS IP in collaboration with ASEBIO, is part of the activities of the European Scale Lab project, funded by the European Community through the Community of Madrid, and brought together nearly a hundred professionals, start-ups, researchers, public officials and investors. The aim: to boost experiences and strategies to boost knowledge transfer and connections between science, industry and funding, as well as to raise awareness of emerging solutions in the field of biotechnology and reflect on opportunities for public-private collaboration by promoting a solid culture of innovation protection through intellectual property.
According to data from the “ASEBIO 2024 Report”, the activity of biotech companies in Spain generated more than 13 billion Euros in revenue, representing 1.1% of the national GDP. Biotech companies contribute 131,214 jobs, representing 0.67% of national employment. Productivity per employee in these companies is three times higher than the national average, with salaries per employee doubling the national average.
In terms of intellectual property, it is worth noting that 82% of biotechnology patent applications are filed through the European Patent Office (EPO) or the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), reflecting the sector’s clear international orientation. In total, 512 biotechnology patent applications and 121 grants were registered in 2024. Joint ownership is still the predominant arrangement, with 223 applications and 52 grants, posing new challenges for the management of joint innovation.
With this background information, the conference began with an institutional statement by Vicente Parras, Deputy Director General for Technological Innovation in the Community of Madrid, who highlighted the role of public policies as a driver of the regional biotech ecosystem and the need to “listen” to the sector actively so that these policies can be leveraged for market transfer in a sector “where there is an imbalance between a large generation of knowledge that is not proportional to the volume of technology transfer and economic development linked to a sector with great potential such as biotechnology in the Community”.
One of the key moments was the expert panel discussion entitled “How to boost the biotech sector in the Community of Madrid”, moderated by Ion Arocena, Director General of AseBio (Spanish Association of Bioenterprises), who highlighted that biotechnology is transforming strategic sectors such as health, sustainability and food safety, and stressed the need to build a solid ecosystem that allows these innovations to reach society. He recalled that this is a sector with high levels of risk, long development cycles and a strong dependence on funding, especially in a business network made up mainly of SMEs. “If we want biotechnology to be a pillar of a more resilient and innovative economic model, we must commit to promoting it in all areas,” he concluded.
Javier Colás, director of the Biomedical Technologies Cluster, together with Marta del Castillo, general director of the Madrid Science Park, and Ana Herrera, director of Patents at PONS IP, all attended the colloquium to discuss the strengths and challenges of the sector in the region. Madrid currently accounts for nearly one in five biotech companies in Spain, generates 34.95% of national turnover and provides more than 124,000 jobs linked to the sector. However, only 41 new companies have been created in the last decade, reflecting a lower level of entrepreneurial enthusiasm compared to other regions. The speakers agreed on the urgent need to strengthen support structures and draw up a roadmap to scale up and internationalise innovative initiatives from Madrid. At this discussion, Ana Herrera, Director of Patents, Technological Development and Innovation at PONS IP, highlighted the importance of promoting a culture of industrial protection in line with the internationalisation strategy of biotechnology companies, aligning the creation of companies and projects with intellectual property activity, which is currently “very unbalanced”.
The second important moment of the day focused on emerging solutions in biotechnology, a space moderated by EFE journalist Andrés Dulanto, which brought together eight innovative start-ups such as BioClonal, Servatrix, 60Nd, STAb Therapeutics, SMED Clinical Research and COLFEED4Print. The companies presented advances in immunotherapy, functional 3D printing, artificial intelligence applied to oncology and functional foods based on quinoa, among others.
The third and final panel of the Forum, entitled “Open Innovation and Funding in the Biotechnology Ecosystem”, was moderated by Nuria Marcos, general manager of PONS IP, and featured Pablo Hervás, Healthcare Transformation Director at GSK, Arturo Urrios, partner at Ysios Capital, and Vicente Parras, Deputy Director General for Technological Innovation in the Community of Madrid.
The debate addressed the current challenges and emerging opportunities for scaling up the biotech sector in Spain, in a context marked by a decline in the volume of private investment, which fell for the third consecutive year in 2024, although the number of transactions increased by 26% up to 53. Among other measures, the experts pointed to the need to reactivate the interest in venture capital and strengthen public funding mechanisms such as CDTI, BEI, ENISA and European regional funds to drive the development of new projects and the scalability of existing ones within the sector’s business network.
The enthusiasm of the sector was evident, especially in the field of digital health, where 63% of the more than 600 European start-ups have been created in the last five years. The convergence between biotechnology, pharma and healthtech was also highlighted, which has driven global funding to 60 billion Euros in 2024. In this context, emphasis was placed on the need to support biotech micro-SMEs in their integration into global value chains, their adaptation to regulated markets, the need to boost growth and also the adoption of digital technologies as a means of gaining competitiveness. The culture of intellectual property, with 82% of patent applications processed in Europe or via the PCT, was identified as an essential strategic factor for internationalisation in an increasingly competitive environment.
