The prospects offered by the biotechnology sector in Gipuzkoa are promoting the development of new business projects. With the goal to contribute to the strengthening and consolidation of this sector, BIC Gipuzkoa has organized four conference to share experiences and promote cooperation between different agents. The first one, "From Bioscience to Business", organized together with Tecnun-University of Navarra, has brought together numerous representatives of the sector to learn about different characteristics and experiences of interest when promoting new business projects, transferring the results of research activity to the market. This initiative is supported by department of Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.

The session "From Bioscience to Business" was organized by BIC Gipuzkoa in collaboration with Tecnun, the Engineering School of the University of Navarra in San Sebastian. The meeting has brought together four relevant experiences from different fields related to the biotechnology industry. At the inauguration of this program of meetings, the director general of Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Iker Estensoro, stressed the strategic nature of the biosciences sector in Gipuzkoa and the commitment of the Provincial Council to promote its development competitively.

Josemaría Siota, executive director IESE Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, gave his views on strategies and trends in technology transfer and corporate venturing. He stressed the need to promote collaboration between established companies and innovative startups "because there is hidden potential ready to be commercialized". In his opinion, Europe must face the challenge of "taking technology transfer to another level", since, according to the data he offered, 21 of the top 100 research entities in the world are in Europe, but 95% of patents are "inactive".

Federico Gago, with more than 20 years of management experience in the pharmaceutical industry and co-founder of VB Devices, Allero therapeutics and Cytovation AS, spoke about his experience as a 'Venture Builder' when it comes to "helping the entrepreneur to make an investable project ". In his opinion, "large corporations, before investing in a project in this sector, need the filter of market reality. It is not easy to incorporate investors, he pointed out, and that is why startups must have a plan to be able to continue their journey on their own".

Jesús M. Hernández, consultant independent biotechnologist, former vice-president Eli Lilly and formerdirector CIMA (University of Navarra), spoke at meeting on basic-applied research and transfer to the market. In his opinion, given the characteristics of the sector, it is necessary to "work with a 15-year perspective, anticipating what the market, the skill and the real need for the product we are developing may be like in that time frame".

Gloria González, scientific director of Vivet Therapeutics and researcher at CIMA, presented the case of her company from the perspective of a scientist. The keys, in her opinion, are credibility and the need for rigorous, quality science. "These aspects are fundamental to generate confidence in investors, since we permanently need to seek investment for new scientific developments."

Biotechnology sector in Gipuzkoa

The goal of these conference is to share experiences and knowledge and to promote cooperation between different agents in order to promote the economic development and the creation and consolidation of the biotechnology sector in Gipuzkoa.

The following conference will take place between now and May with different approaches: "Aspects core topic in the structuring of a biotech startup: legal and financial perspective"; "Hack your company!!!"; and, finally, on May 7, there will be a session with investors in companies in the biotech sector.

These meetings have the goal to boost the biosciences sector to promote technology transfer and knowledge to the market. For this purpose, different conference have been designed with specific objectives to share knowledge, experiences and networking among the agents of the biosciences sector in Gipuzkoa: startups, universities, CIC, technology centers, companies, agents of the social-health system, investment funds, etc.