Spain's Biotech Revolution

Evolution of a company

Progenika, based at a science park on the outskirts of Bilbao, began when its founders wanted to start a biotechnology company, any biotechnology comany.

So they launched one. “At the beginning we started doing everything,” laughs Antonio Martínez, one of the founders. “Food, health, everything.”

Martínez had been working for PharmaMar, one of Spain’s most established biotechnology companies. His old friend from student days Laureano Simón, had spent time in Wisconsin and then come back to the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid. At the time—in the 1990s—there were few opportunities in the Spanish biotechnology sector.

Together with Corina Junquera, Martínez and Simon settled on Bilbao as a home for their new company, because the Basque region had launched an initiative to grow its information-based sector.

“The ultimate goal has been to diversify our industrial tissue and our economy,” says Maria Aguirre of BioBasque, the government agency that focuses on the life sciences. The local government’s support for biotechnology is intended, she adds, “not just for the creation of new companies, but the creation of jobs to help stay competitive, in areas that have not been traditional for the region.”

Progenika set up the new company in Bilbao. Intrigued by the emerging technology of DNA chips, Progenika offered to become a service provider for Affymetrix, a California-based DNA microarray company that provided genetic testing services.

“Providing services is a good way to start, but it’s not the way to make Progenika a big company,” says Martínez, so the team began to develop its own products.

The Spanish government was interested in identifying people who suffer from familiar hypercholesterolemia (FH), a genetic disease with no visible symptoms that can lead to heart attacks at the age of 40 or 50. The government turned to Progenika for assistance.

The company needed to develop a system to accurately recognize 120 genetic mutations that lead to the disease. After three years of research, in 2004 Progenika received European approval for a diagnostic DNA chip. Newsweek proclaimed it the first genetic diagnostic for FH.

After this success, the European Union approached Progenika to develop a chip to identify blood groups. The two most familiar blood groupings, A/B/O and RH positive/negative, don’t represent a variety of other blood groupings more common among populations, for instance, from Africa. Differences can lead to rejection of blood transfusions in patients, who produce antibodies against improperly matched blood.

“The genetic basis of blood groups was not well-known,” says Martínez. Two years later, the company came out with a DNA chip to test for genetic markers for a variety of blood groupings. They have set up platforms in some of the major blood banks in Spain, the UK and Holland and are beginning to expand into Europe and the Middle East.

Progenika continues to research and expand its product lines. It is developing a system to monitor the urine of bladder cancer patients, which can detect proteins from tumors to determine if the tumor is regenerating, as well as diagnostics for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Progenika now has 130 people and a vast research space. Says Martínez of the company’s rapid growth, “We have a lot of energy. That’s important—at the beginning you need a lot of energy.”