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ERA Plantech first to receive the “Entrepreneurs” award

By 22 de May de 2003November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 22.05.2003

ERA Plantech first to receive the “Entrepreneurs” award

has become the first biotechnology company to receive the “Entrepreneurs” award, given to the best start-up of a new technology-based company in Catalonia. The Generalitat de Catalunya (Autonomous Government of Catalonia), through its Centre for Innovation and Business Development (CIDEM) and the Department of Telecommunications and the Information Society, gives the award to the project which most excels in terms of innovation, originality, maturity and finance. 192 projects were put forward for last year’s award.

In the opinion of the researcher and founder of ERA Plantech, Mª Dolors Ludevid, “the award is a real boost to what is a high-risk project of great potential. The cheapest way of producing proteins is to use plants as “factories”, and thus, having low-cost production technology could be of great importance in the future in terms of developing new therapies based on proteins and antibodies”.

ERA Plantech is a biotechnology company dedicated to the production of peptides and proteins of therapeutic and/or industrial interest, using plants as bioreactors. The company makes use of and original and exclusive technology known as ZERA which enables recombinant proteins to be produced in large quantities as a result of their accumulation in the natural reservoirs of plant cells.

Promoted by scientists from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research), ERA Plantech was founded in July 2002 and has received backing from the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, the Parc Científic de Barcelona, CIDEM, Advancell and the venture capital firm BCNemprèn. The company, located within the CIDEM-PCB Bioincubator, is currently aiming to validate and optimize the ZERA technology in order to ensure its viability and capacity to produce a wide range of peptides and proteins.