Madrid, July 1st 2015.– Barcelona hosted the presentation of the Farma-Biotech Cooperation Program results report, fostered by Farmaindustria. This report features the most important landmarks of this initiative during the period 2011 (when it was initiated) and 2014. Thus, it is worth highlighting that during the twelve meetings celebrated within the framework of the Program, more than 93 stakeholders have participated, generating 86 projects of interest.

The Farma-Biotech Cooperation Program was born in 2011 in the framework of the Spanish Technological Platform for Innovative Medicines with the aim of facilitating the necessary information and fostering potential cooperation agreements between pharmaceutical companies, Spanish small biotechnological enterprises and research centers.

According to the remarks of Farmaindustria’s Deputy Director General, Javier Urzay, during the presentation of the results report, “the reformulation of investments in R&D, the expiration of the patents of some medicines, the arrival of biological origin medicines or the trend towards internationalization of some parts of the research process, have all provided for a fundamental change in the way that new medicines are developed”.

The pharmaceutical industry’s interest in finding new medicines, and doing so in a manner that is efficient from an economical point of view, has favored the flourishing of collaborations between the sector and research centers of small startup companies. In this regard, the report highlights that Spanish biotechnological companies, -normally small and recently created- have always encountered difficulties when looking for financing to go forward in their projects.

The Farma-Biotech Program was created, thus, in order to make the most of the results of research undertaken in small research centers and hospitals, as well as the positive preclinical works which had been obtained by those small biotechnological based companies. The objectives of the project include identifying the real needs which currently exists, to look for and offer appropriate information, as well as to generate a trusting atmosphere which in essential for a realistic and effective cooperation.

Up to now, the Farma-Biotech Program has received 357 R&D projects. The report indicates that those projects “have been scrupulously analyzed in order to guarantee that they were capable of satisfying the expectations of interested pharmaceutical companies, thus optimizing the efforts to be made by all parties”.

Therefore, the Program has counted with the participation of 33 pharmaceutical companies, 37 small biotechnological companies, as well as 23 research organisms. During this four-years period, 86 products of interest were presented; most of them have reached different stages in their interaction projects with pharmaceutical companies.

“There is a clear willingness to provide this program with continuity, since it stimulates the innovation eco system in Spain”, pointed out Farmaindustria’s Deputy Director General. “Farma-Biotech is a pioneer experience when it comes to its design, above all,  it fosters direct interactions between pharmaceutical companies and small startup companies; it is precisely because of these engagements that a more efficient biomedical research is guaranteed”, he concluded.