More than 100 experts meet at the ISCIII to promote advanced therapies in Spain

The Spanish Bioindustry Association (AseBio) and the Network Biomedical Research Centre (CIBER) held a conference this Thursday at the Chamartín Campus of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) to promote the potential of advanced therapies in Spain and connect academic research with the industrial capabilities of Spanish biotechnology. The event was opened by Margarita Blázquez, managing director of the CIBER; Ion Arocena, CEO of AseBio; and Luzma García, head of Transfer at CIBER. 

The ISCIII has stated that the development of advanced therapy medicines is a strategic pillar for the Institute, which has allowed it to make intensive use of public-private partnership as a tool for scientific, industrial and economic transformation. A centre for advanced therapies is being built on its Majadahonda campus and clinical trials led by hospitals have been promoted to evaluate the efficacy of this type of medicines. All of this is aimed at guaranteeing the rapid and efficient delivery of these medicines to all those who need them. 

More than 1,000 clinical trials up and running worldwide 

In recent years, biotechnology has led a major R&D effort in advanced therapies worldwide. As a result, in 2020 there are more than a thousand clinical trials of advanced therapies in the world up and running for the treatment of a hundred or so pathologies, of which approximately half are aimed at treating different types of cancer. This figure represents a growth of more than 60% since 2015.  

At the CIBER, an ISCIII consortium, there are several lines of research into advanced therapies, particularly in the areas of rare diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The CIBER states that this research is a fundamental part of the centre's work, ranging from the achievement of new treatments based on gene and cell therapy in the most prevalent diseases to rare diseases, or work on tissue engineering and developments in biomaterials and nanomedicine, among others. One of these examples was presented by Juan Bueren during the conference. The CIEMAT and CIBERER researcher also stressed the importance of public-private partnership to reach the productive fabric and to treat patients. 

Spain as leader 

Within this growing global panorama, Spain ranks fifth worldwide in the number of scientific publications in the field of cell therapy with respect to GDP, ahead of countries such as South Korea, the United Kingdom and Italy, and leads the world in the number of clinical trials. 

AseBio presented its map of industrial capabilities in advanced therapies, highlighting 34 companies with 12 industrial plants throughout Spain. "One of the most important things to highlight is that our partners are present throughout the entire chain, from research, development and manufacturing to storage and distribution. This makes it possible to complete such a complex puzzle and this joint work allows us to consolidate our position as leaders in this crucial area for the cutting-edge health care we want to build that is advanced therapies," added Ion Arocena, CEO of AseBio. 

In this respect, as of 2023 the CIBER and AseBio are going to offer a series of forums in which research groups will present their projects to companies in order to seek synergies, thus fostering a cooperative environment in this area at national level. 

A start-up that fights cancer 

At the same conference, the first edition of the AseBio-Merck "Advanced Therapies Start-up Competition” Award was held, aimed at promoting and strengthening entrepreneurship and the development and manufacture of new advanced therapies by biotech start-ups. “The success of this new award and its power of attraction have been enormous, underlining how much scientific talent exists in our country. Merck will continue to support patients living with challenging diseases, as well as the scientists, researchers and start-ups who, thanks to their work, contribute to improving the world we live in," said Enrique Berlanas, CEO of Merck Life Science España. 

The company, also a partner of AseBio, that won the award this Thursday is LentiStem Biotech, a biotech spin-off focused on the research and development of innovative platform-based technologies to improve the safety and efficacy of existing advanced therapy strategies, with particular emphasis on cancer immunotherapy and CAR-T therapy. Its founders have more than 20 years of experience in the field of gene therapy. 

LentiStem's participation in this first edition and having been selected as a finalist is a unique opportunity for them to get themselves known in our Spanish ecosystem and find new partners and collaborators, according to María Tristán, scientific director and co-founder of the company. “For us, it would be ideal to have such a well-rounded ally as Merck, which would understand our technologies perfectly. It would help us not only to cover technical aspects such as the production and scale-up of clinical-grade lentiviral vectors, to license and/or co-develop our platforms to treat different diseases, but would also guide us in the regulatory and clinical aspects necessary to bring the technological solutions we offer to the patient," she concludes. 

The other two finalists were Integra Therapeutics and Thytech. The award comes with €30,000 in bioprocess technologies from Merck and €5,000 in products from Merck Science & Lab Solutions. In addition, the winning project will be able to enjoy a day at the Merck MLAB™Collaboration Center, where they will be able to test the most advanced technologies in the field and have any queries and questions answered by the German company's technical experts.