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 18.01.2021

Six companies linked to PCB capture 40% of the capital raised by the health sciences sector in Catalonia in 2020

Health sciences companies in Catalonia raised more than €124 million last year in 30 funding rounds, according to a report by the newspaper Expansión Cataluña. The largest operation was closed by Ona Therapeutics, based in the Barcelona Science Park, raising €30M. The investment rounds, carried out by Accure Therapeutics, Connecta Therapeutics, DeepUll, Oxolife and SpliceBio, which are also present in the Park, are includes in the ranking.

The capital raised in 2020 by the health sciences sector – biotechnology, medical technology and digital health- in Catalonia, which does not include debt or capital increases in securities markets, marks a new record, since it doubles the volume compared to the €60 million that represented the largest operations in 2019.

According to the Expansión report, the largest operation in the sector was that of Ona Therapeutics, which raised €30M in Series A financing. The company, a spin-off of IRB Barcelona and ICREA, is focused on the discovery and development of therapeutic biologics to treat metastatic cancer [+ info].

Accure Therapeutics, dedicated to the development of innovative drugs to treat diseases of the central nervous system, started in the Park as a result of the merger of Iproteos and Bionure, after the closing last May of a Series A round of €7.6M [+ info].

Oxolife, created to develop a new treatment to improve female fertility rate, completed in June its first funding round by raising €5M.  Currently, the biotech is developing a molecule that acts on embryo implantation to increase the pregnancy success rate [+info].

DeepUll concluded in July a €3.5M Series A round. The company, which focuses its activity on the development of a new diagnostic system for early stages sepsis condition, was founded in 2019 by Jordi Carrera and Rafel Bru, who started STAT-Dx in 2010 and led the company until it was sold to QIAGEN in 2018 for $191M [+info].

Connecta Therapeutics closed in October a €1,7M round. The biotechnology Company –founded as a spin-off of the Prous Institute for Biomedical Research to develop new therapies for unmet medical needs involving the central nervous system– currently remains linked to the park as an associated entity [+info].

Splice Bio, formerly ProteoDesign, specialized in novel gene therapies based on its proprietary intein platform technology for incurable genetic diseases, announced in September the closing of a new round of financing. The amount of funding has not been disclosed [+info].

 

PCB