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Carme Plasencia and Marina Rigau (Photo: Aromics / MiMark).
 27.01.2022

Aromics and Mimark Diagnostics, winners of ChemoStart’s 5th edition

The Insud Pharma group has announced the winners of the V edition of its ChemoStart programme. The biotech companies Aromics and MiMark Diagnostics, based in the Barcelona Science Park, together with AntalGenics, a spin-off from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche, have been the three award-winning companies, from among the 12 shortlisted startups who participated in Pitch Day before an external jury made up of different health leaders.

The ChemoStart programme, which seeks to promote innovative and disruptive solutions that improve people’s health and well-being, is led by Leandro Sigman, and it has received the support of the Secretary General for Innovation, Teresa Riesgo.

Aromics CEO and founder Carme Plasencia explained that “NAX035 is a new class of cancer drug that tackles cancer progression and chemotherapy resistance in cases of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is ranked among the top ten occupational cancers in the world due to its association with asbestos. It is a tumour with a high social impact and a very low response rate to current treatments”.

Marina Rigau, CEO and co-founder of Mimarkpresented WomEC, a new proposal for a diagnostic pot for endometrial cancer (EC) based on new biomarkers present in the uterine fluid “which will allow a more precise diagnosis and save more invasive diagnostic tests”. Mimark is one of the 11 eleven companies selected to participate in the BCN Health Booster accelerator, promoted by the Barcelona Science Park and the Barcelona City Council, with the collaboration of Barcelona Activa and with the support of Biocat.

Finally, the third winning startup was Antalgenics which has developed a treatment for chronic psoriatic itch at its source with an innovative new neuromodulatory drug.

The social reach of each of these projects and their impact when it comes to making the work of medical practitioners easier, as well as their innovative nature and their scientific and clinical evidence, were some of the determining criteria for the jury’s selection of the winners.

The winning start-ups will receive support from Insud Pharma to promote their healthcare solutions based on their needs in areas such as internationalisation, marketing, scalability, or commercialisation of the business.

» More information: Insud Pharma website [+]