GalChimia doubles the surface of its R&D&I center in the Barcelona Science Park
Galician company GalChimia has doubled the facility and personnel count of its R&D&I center at the Barcelona Science Park, which was opened just a year ago to accelerate its growth and internationalization strategy an initiative to share the knowledge and experience of experts in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in the field of discovery and drug development with its clients and the scientific community. Coinciding with the inauguration of its new laboratories, the company celebrated its first “GalChimia Day”, an initiative to share the knowledge and experience of experts in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in the field of discovery and drug development with its clients and the scientific community.
Galician company GalChimia, specializing in organic chemistry products and services for the pharmaceutical sector, is consolidating its presence in Catalonia. Its R&D&I center in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) has doubled its surface area since the company opened it just over a year ago.
To officially introduce its new laboratories, GalChimia yesterday gathered almost a hundred people from academia, science and business. The company was represented by its founding partners, Carme Pampín and Jacobo Cruces, as well as professors from the University of Santiago de Compostela Ramón Estévez and Gabriel Tojo, who are partners in the project, Santiago López, who is a member of the board of directors and Julie Masse, the commercial director and head of the GalChimia R&D&I center at the PCB.
“The expansion of our center in Barcelona closes the first phase of the investment plan planned for the 2019-2021 period, which will be complemented by the construction of new laboratories at the company’s headquarters with an estimated infrastructure budget of €3 million. In this way we hope to strengthen our technological and innovative ability to stay at the forefront of chemical research,” says Carme Pampín, CEO of GalChimia and president of Bioga, the Galician Life Sciences Business Technology Cluster.
“The creation of a new laboratory and expansion of the staff in Barcelona is due to the need to expand our facilities to respond to a significant national and international increase in demand. However, we have brought forward the objectives for staff by 1 year, with a full laboratory in June 2019, which was originally planned for the middle of 2020,” reveals Julie Masse, Commercial and Marketing Director and head of the GalChimia R&D&I center at the PCB.
GalChimia Day: Successful experiences to generate knowledge
Coinciding with the inauguration of its new laboratories, the first “GalChimia Day” was hosted yesterday at the Barcelona Science Park auditorium. This is a company initiative to create a knowledge and networking event, where young researchers can expand their knowledge in strategic areas of drug discovery and development with the lessons learned and expertise of leading representatives of the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and the academic world with successful experiences in this field.
With more than 270 clients in 30 countries, GalChimia is an international reference as a supplier of organic chemistry products and services for the pharmaceutical sector. Over the last 17 years, its team has successfully completed more than 1,700 projects in the field of drug discovery and development for large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology start-ups that are leaders in their fields, giving it extensive knowledge on the role of chemistry applied to this area.
“For a pharmaceutical company, chemistry is the basis of its development; it is the active substance of its medications. With over 17 years of experience working in this sector, we have participated in the successes and failures of many projects. We have had the privilege of working closely with excellent scientists and companies that are leaders in their fields. As a result of this work, we have established an exceptional team of chemists who are used to facing difficult challenges and providing solutions for clients around the world,” explains Jacobo Cruces, company co-founder and scientific director.”
“Now with ‘GalChimia Day’, we want to create a meeting place where young researchers can learn about the challenges that other scientists have already successfully faced, with the aim of helping them to advance their research programs faster,” he adds.
In addition to Jacobo Cruces, this first meeting was also attended by speakers Enrique Fernández, Project Manager at the Barcelona center; Antoni Torrens, head of Collaborative Chemistry and Strategic Alliances in Esteve; Luc Marti, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Cebiotex; Richard Roberts, director of Medical Chemistry at Kærtor Foundation; Guido Kurz, CEO of Oncostellae, and José María Palacios, founder of Frontera Biotechnology. Outstanding company’s customers and representatives of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies also attended the event.
