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Galicia, a vast region of Spain, with plenty of raw materials and natural resources, whether it be in its nearby seas or lands. It is not by chance that many Galician private companies and public entities have been wide open to research and development in the area of life sciences as it is called in the Spanish bio tech sector. In fact, it turns out to be their daily bread and butter. Yet until 2010, there had been many efforts made from companies and the local government to get together and gel on a bio tech project, and then, nothing came out of it. However, that very same year, Bioga was born, a bio tech cluster, that ever since has not stopped growing. It is a fact, and of paramount importance that the bio tech sector in Galicia is now growing steady at a share rate of 60% and 90% of this turns up overseas.
In 2014, it was the year of the much celebrated bio technology industry in Spain. Bioga strengthened its position in the top 5 Spanish companies, and worth mentioning that Bioga hosted the main event that yearBioSpain, which was held successfully last September in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Zeltia has been another giant company added to the Bioga worthy portfolio.
More than 45 companies, which have partnered with the Galician bio tech sector and altogether have a combined turnover of over $69 million US dollars and provide with a work force of 1,000 associates plus. More than 60% of this workforce are university bachelors and Ph D’s in Science. Carme Pampín, Bioga’s CEO, has her say about it: “The main target of this growing Galician cluster is to be a landmark not only in Galicia but also in Spain and Europe, and I firmly believe, we are steadily growing and achieving this target…”
[box size=”large”]Life Sciences have already raked a market share of 60% in the Galician scientific sector[/box]
Born as an heir to one of the top bio tech forums and corporations, which initially did not achieve her goals, Bioga has realized that it has been imperative to be persistant and keep on working hard in order to promote and gel a team of industry insiders, universities, spin-offs, research centers, healthcare foundations and the establishment itself. All of this work has had the sole purpose to reach enough critical mass and to take this project off the ground.
Campus Vida, Zeltia y Lonza Biologics Porriño have spearheaded the project, and the cluster has grown dramatically to show great potential in the bio tech national and international sector. All in all, most of these companies, adhered to the cluster a.k.a Cluster Tecnolóxico e Empresarial das Ciencias da Vida (Bioga), are small-sized-companies, which take up bio technology as their main business.
This cluster has a very far out diversity in the scope of bio tech industries, which ranges from diagnostics, disease treatment (Ebiotec), to probiotics ingredient production and provision (Bialactis), lab research or even disease prevention and crop plague control(Deroceras) and even some of them are in the business of human-resources like In Out Consulting.
AMSlab, spawned from the University Campus in Lugo, is another company which analyzes products realted to the mass spectrometry field, and has spread its wings to the textile, food and pharma industries. AMSlab is the company responsible for the Inditex quality checks. Then, we have Nanogap with its metallic nanoparticles of gold and silver, which has specific applications in the fields of electronics and other materials. Another company is called Biovía, with a startling device that allows to measure pollution through moss.
From Bioga many other partners have been born, like CosmetInnova, which is a cluster of 5 Galician companies in charge of developing organic cosmetics of high bio-organic activity and with positive effects on our health. Also the remarkable and worthy of mention Hifas da Terra, which harvests mushrooms to obtain organic medicinal products. And Glecex, the first Spanish company which has aimed its research and work towards the splitting and insulating of antioxidants in plants, with effective application within the fields of pharma, agro foods and cosmetics. Glecex the brainchild of José Manuel López Vilariño points out: “We’ll hopefully get soon, a preservative agent, first ever certified as organic”.
All of this canvas of small and big sized corporations, research centers and companies, based off Galician seas and lands, related to medicine and agriculture, either public or private, is drawn upon a Galician landscape that has pushed rapidly into the Top 5 ranked companies in Spain. Seemingly, as organic as Galicia and as diverse as life itself.
