Spain's Biotech Revolution

The CNB bioincubator is slowly being dismantled and transfered to nearby facilities at the Madrid Science Park (PCM in Spanish). PCM was created in 2001 to promote technology transfer from the academic to the private sector. “These types of parks here in Spain offer a new physical space to create better relationships between universities and companies,” says its director, Antonio Díaz. There are already more than 125 companies in the park.

With only a few employees each, the companies share office and lab space and have access to expensive equipment that would usually be out of financial reach at this early stage. In addition, the arrangement provides them with administrative assistance in developing their businesses.

The most advanced research is led by Victor Rosas, head of Decantum Systems. Rosas has spent decades in academia developing a food safety test that quickly separates, for instance, fats and proteins in an animal’s liver. The tests, which can also detect illegal substances, are significantly less expensive and exponentially faster than techniques used today in food safety. The company is already selling the first kits to a handful of regions in Spain before beginning to market them internationally.

Another regional bioincubator officially kicked off in the Basque region five years ago. Actively promoting company creation, the local authorities set up new biotechnology research centers, with top-of-the-line facilities in genomics, proteomics, structural biology, molecular imaging, and many other related fields. Though the area does not have a long history in biological research, as is the case in Madrid and Barcelona, its rich history in engineering and manufacturing provides the basis for the government’s recent push to expand into biology.

“We have particular strengths in personalized medicine, and we can also use our know-how and expertise to create biosensors, or robotics and automation for biology, which is what some of the companies are involved in,” says Maria Aguirre, head of BioBask, the government agency in charge of the effort. In the last four to five years, she adds, a new company has been created, on average, every three months. Seventy companies are already part of the initiative. The research community has also grown with the creation of Cooperative Research Centers,  two multidisciplinary centers to advance research in biomedicine and in biomaterials and nanobiology.

At the University of Navarra in Pamplona, a new project called the Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA) pairs university research centers with an applied-pharmacology investigation center, a hospital with a department for clinical trials, and a private company to develop new products and bring them to market.

In all, Spain has about 32 functioning science and technology parks, with 47 more in development—and literally thousands of companies working in a wide variety of scientific fields have been incubated in these parks or spun off from them. This model itself has become a Spanish export. Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and some countries in Eastern Europe have expressed interest in creating similar centers.