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Category: Pharmaceutical

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Pharmaceutical

Opportunities in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sector in Aragon

Aragon is positioned as a hub for the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, with a vibrant ecosystem that fosters innovation, collaboration and growth.

After a decade of rapid expansion, Aragon is realizing its potential as an industrial hub in areas such as biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical technology. Almost 91% of the Spanish healthcare industry and 52% of the Spanish biotechnology industry is located within 300 km of the region, 5 of the 60 largest companies in the pharmaceutical industry in Spain are located in Aragon, which is the 3rd Spanish region by number of healthcare companies.

These are some of the main ideas that were discussed last November 10 at the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce, in the event “Invest in Aragon” organized by Capital Radio and the Government of Aragon.

Two leading companies in the sector, Podoactiva and Certest, together with another relevant player in the region, the Walqa Technology Park, talked about their advances in areas such as personalized medicine, bioinformatics and digital technologies applied to health.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector in Aragon is adapting to technological changes and the growing demand for personalized healthcare services through specialization, digitalization and public-private collaboration.

Specialization: Aragonese companies are focusing on specific market niches to develop customized and innovative solutions.

Digitization: Bioinformatics and digitization are becoming essential for the development of these companies. San Jorge University in Aragon already offers a degree in bioinformatics, recognizing the importance of this area.

Aragon has a solid research and development infrastructure, driven by institutions such as the University of Zaragoza, the Technological Institute of Aragon (ITA) and the Health Research Institute of Aragon. This infrastructure, which combines public-private collaboration, facilitates the generation of knowledge and the transfer of technology to the productive sector.

Other issues also discussed at this roundtable were related to talent and quality of life.

Attracting and retaining talent: It is vitally important to attract and retain talent in Aragon. The region’s universities, such as the University of Zaragoza and San Jorge University, offer degrees in biosanitary areas, providing a source of local talent. However, there is concern that this talent may leave for other regions if they are not offered the right conditions. The need for internship programs to help recent graduates enter the labor market was highlighted.

Quality of Life: Aragon offers a high quality of life, which makes it an attractive place to live and work. This factor can contribute to the attraction of talent and the consolidation of a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The sector also faces significant challenges. The three speakers pointed out:

Bureaucracy in drug authorization and other processes continues to be an obstacle to the sector’s progress. Although efforts are being made to reduce bureaucracy, companies still perceive the need for greater agility in these processes.

Low productivity in Europe, including Spain, is identified as a concern that could affect the future of the sector.

There is a need to publicize the leading companies that exist in Aragon to attract talent and prevent it from leaving for other regions. It is necessary to work on the visibility of the companies from all the economic agents involved.

In summary, Aragon offers a favorable environment for the development of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector, due to all of the above and also because of its excellent location, and its sophisticated infrastructure and multimodal logistics services, including cold chain solutions, which allow access to most of Europe in just 24 hours and to any corner of the world in 48 hours.

Categories
Pharmaceutical

The world’s leading company in hormonal therapies, Besins Healthcare, installs its newest factory in Aragon

Aragon attracts another pharmaceutical company to install its first factory in Spain
The 25-million-euro investment will create 150 highly qualified jobs

Besins Healthcare, world leadeing company in novel therapies for gynecology, fertility, obstetrics, endocrinology and andrology, has chosen the town of Muel (Zaragoza) to install its first factory in Spain. The pharmaceutical multinational acquired a 9,800-square-meter warehouse in the industrial area El Pitarco to carry out this investment, which will reach 25 million euros and create 150 stable highly qualified jobs.

The plant is expected to start manufacturing in the second half of 2022. Construction works are already underway, soon part of the equipment will be installed so that it can be tested starting this summer. According to company sources, there could be additional future investments, “given that we are talking about a stable process of decades.” Besins has assured that, as a company in a constant research process, they contemplate the production of new creation products at the Muel plant destined for the whole world.

This new business project will be declared of Regional Interest by the Government of Aragon, which will make it possible to shorten administrative process times. In addition to this declaration, the Department of Economy, Planning and Employment is already processing, together with the company, its application file for Regional Economic Incentives. The President of Aragon, Javier Lambán, declared that this investment is particularly welcome as it is implanted in a rural area, contributing to its revitalization.

Why did Besins choose Aragon?

Besins Healthcare has chosen Aragon to install its first plant in Spain due to factors such as its geographical location and communication routes. In addition, the proximity of Muel to the University of Zaragoza facilitates the hiring or attraction of qualified personnel. Another decisive cause that has led the managers of the company to settle in Muel is the immediate availability of a spacious and empty warehouse that allows, in a short time, the integration of all the necessary facilities for the production of medicines. 

Besides, according to the president of the French company, Antoine Besins, choosing Aragon has responded to objective industrial parameters. Although, among all the candidate countries -mandatorily belonging to the European Union for the application of mandatory pharmaceutical standards-, the “excellent” reception of the authorities and the facilities for the establishment of companies in the sector has entailed a keypoint to make this decision.

The Department of Economy, Planning and Employment, through Aragón Exterior (AREX), began working in 2019 on attracting the investment project of this company. Up to 14 Autonomous Communities presented location proposals in their territory. Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium or Ireland have competed with Spain, and within Spain, Aragón was the most competitive region for its dynamism and adaptation to the needs of the company. 

A leading company

Besins Healthcare is a family business specialized in the development and commercialization of hormonal therapies for the treatment of gynecology and obstetrics, fertility, endocrinology and andrology. It currently produces and markets more than thirty different products that are prescribed in one hundred countries around the world.

One of the mainstays of the company is constant research. Thanks to it, it has been possible to discover innovative technologies that have an impact on improving the health of women and men throughout their lives. Besins Healthcare products include natural progesterone for pregnant women, transdermal gel for testosterone deficiency syndrome, or estradiol replacement therapies during menopause.

Source: Aragonhoy

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Green Energy Pharmaceutical

Aragon triples funds raised in the H2020 program and is now among the leading Autonomous Communities in European resources for R + D + i

Regional companies and public entities achieve a return of 176.3 million euros from their participation in 500 EU-funded projects
SMEs, public technology and research centers, and the university achieve the highest funding in strategic areas such as clean energy, industry and agri-food

Aragon has achieved a return of 176.3 million euros in the European Horizon 2020 program to promote research and innovation, tripling its result from the previous funding plan of the European Commission and placing the Autonomous Community as the sixth in Spain in terms of fundraising.

This number is the result of the efforts of 145 Aragonese entities and agents, who have participated with excellent results in H2020. 

The biggest share of this amount was achieved by Aragonese companies, and especially small and medium-sized ones (SMEs), who have participated in 500 financed projects, accounting for almost 50 million euros (27.9% of total return).

The performance of the Aragonese technology centers such as the Technological Institute of Aragon ITAINNOVA and Aitiip Technological Center has also been remarkable, with 26.7% of the total funds obtained and a global amount of 47.16 million euros. University of Zaragoza, with 34 million euros, represents 19.2%; public research centers, 13.7% with just over 24 million euros; while the public administration represents 4.8%, exceeding 8.5 million euros.

Among the main participating agents, there are also the Institute of Materials Sciences of Aragon and the Institute of Carbochemistry, both dependent on the Higher Council for Scientific Research, as well as the Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies, the Zaragoza Logistic Center Foundation, the Aragonese Health Service, the Iberus Campus of International Excellence or the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza.

From the sectors’ perspective, those who have obtained the highest returns are clean, safe and efficient energy (29.9 million); nanotechnologies, materials and biotechnology (26.5 million); and bioeconomy and food security (13.7 million). In fact, they account for 40% of the funds capitalized by Aragon and confirm the Community’s strategic specialization in the fields of energy (hydrogen and fuel cells), industry and agri-food.

In addition, this program has been supported by all actors of the Aragonese science and technology system, which speaks of good health and coordination of the regional ecosystem. The excellent results obtained by the Aragonese entities participating in the program, as well as by the rest of the Autonomous Communities, have led Spain to rank fourth in volume of subsidies received, only behind Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

The new Horizon Europe framework program, endowed with 95,517 million euros for the next seven years, aims to achieve the greatest scientific, technological, economic and social impact of EU investments in R & D & I, promoting the competitiveness of the regions and Member States. It is estimated that it could generate 11 euros for every euro invested and create up to 320,000 new highly-skilled jobs by 2040.

Source: Aragonhoy

Categories
Pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical investments in Aragon are on the rise

More than 50 companies of the biomedical sector have established facilities in Aragon
CerTest Biotec, a local manufacturer of antigen tests, will invest € 100 million euros in the next three years, creating 205 new jobs

Nowadays, around 50 pharmaceutical companies have established their installations in Aragon, manufacturing a variety of  pharmaceutical products, radiation, electromedical and electrotherapeutic equipment, and medical and dental instruments and supplies.

BD‘s recent investment in Zaragoza has helped boosting the industrial sector in Aragon, and the pharmaceutical industry in particular. This project is part of its business unit specialized in the manufacture and marketing of preloaded drug administration systems, mainly glass syringes, that are supplied to pharmaceutical companies to be filled with the drugs they produce.

Other notable companies, in addition to Becton Dickinson, have also set their eyes on Aragon:

  • Novaltia, the sixth pharmaceutical distribution company by national market share, has invested in two logistics centers in Zaragoza and Calatayud in 2020.
  • One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Teva will invest 40 million until 2025 in its Zaragoza plant and will create new 60 jobs, to increase its production by 20%
  • Alliance Healthcare has hired about 200 people – half of them in the company’s international digital innovation center WBA Digital – in Villanueva de Gállego.

Another  project that is already being developed is part of the industrial park Polígono Río Gállego II, in San Mateo de Gállego, where local antigen test producer CerTest Biotec  is installed and whose presence and expansion is serving as a tractor for the installation of other projects in the biomedical sector.

CerTest will invest € 100 million in the next three years creating 205 new jobs. After the seventh phase of its initial development project to double the area and number of employees, construction of a  vaccine factory has also started, with an investment of 10 million euros, out of the 100 announced last year in the presence of the Spanish Minister of Science. The company is  already working on the earthworks, the total estimated  execution period will be of 15 months.

The pharmaceutical industry reveals  to be one of the strategic sectors that contribute to the economic reactivation of Spain and attracts new international investments to our country, being a driving force for science and the economy, contributing to its revitalization. Each euro invested in this sector generates between one and two in other sectors, and each direct job generates up to four additional ones.

Source: Aragonhoy

Categories
Pharmaceutical

Aragón, in the top tier of European pharmaceutical hubs with BD investment

BD will build a 200M€, latest generation plant for glass syringes, creating 600 jobs in Zaragoza
Aragon grows as the new pharmaceutical benchmark in Europe

In two years and a half, Becton Dickinson (BD), one of the largest medical technology companies in the world, will begin to manufacture in Zaragoza the first components of its latest generation glass syringes that will reach an annual production of 400 million units in 2030.

With a consummated investment in Aragon of 450 million euros, the American multinational founded in 1897 presents itself as a reliable company that will continue to invest another 206 million euros between 2021 and 2030. This investment will lead to the creation of 150 qualified jobs -in areas such as electromechanics, metrology, robotics or process quality control- until the end of 2023, a figure that is expected to increase to 600 workers upon completion of the start-up of all production lines.

The project for the new plant located in Zaragoza is linked to the operations of the company’s facilities in Fraga, which will contribute to its consolidation and potential growth. Both plants will be connected through their production processes and the possibility of sharing knowledge, which will make both factories located in Aragon a benchmark within the Becton Dickinson organization and the Aragonese industrial fabric itself. Aragon is becoming a firm competitor of Liège (Belgium) and Basel (Switzerland), thanks to its strategic entry position to Europe and its logistical capacity.

The Fragatina plant has an area of 65,000 m2 and is one of the largest factories in the region, fully automated and 100% powered by renewable energy . Its staff reaches, after the last hiring, almost 700 employees. With a production of 6 billion units per year, it is the only plant in the company that integrates the entire supply chain, including direct delivery to the customer, with an automated warehouse whose capacity of 24,000 pallets will increase to 38,000 after the expansion works.

On July 14, 2021, the Governing Council of Aragon approved the declaration as an investment of regional interest for the new manufacturing plant, in other words, streamlining the administrative processing of this project. The project includes the phased construction of a sustainable plant for the manufacture of plastic components of multiple types and production lines for Hypack glass syringes, with their corresponding equipment and services. Long-term planning is to optimize space utilization to allow the installation of at least 10-12 lines of these syringes, equivalent to 1.5 billion units of syringes per year.

The company will continue working with the Government of Aragon to develop the legal-technical framework so that the  industrial park can accommodate other companies interested in settling there.

Source: Aragonhoy