Javier Selva has been linked to the health sector for more than 15 years, in different aspects. Since 2022, he has headed Catalonia.Health (the new name of CataloniaBio & HealthTech), an entity created in 2006 to represent companies in the biomedicine and health sector in Catalonia. Trained in biotechnology, biomedicine and with an EMBA from EAE, the CEO of the entity has the governance of an entity that houses more than 200 companies and also knowledge agents in research, development and innovation (R&D&I). “We are a community, an ecosystem, that cooperates to transfer the advances of science to the market, through innovation,” he explains.
The latest report from Catalonia.Health and the consulting firm Ernst & Young shows that the sector in Catalonia is, precisely, in good health.
As a country and as an ecosystem we have good science and good industry and we have to continue fighting to maintain it and not lose leadership. We have to try to bring the two paradigms together as much as possible. However, we also have to believe it.
What does it mean?
In Catalonia we have projects that if they were found in Cambridge or London, they would have much more success. We have to believe what we have. We have a local industry that can collaborate with the international industry; Local start-ups that have international investors… The sector is strategic and is an economic engine of Catalonia and that has to be seen and we have to bet on it. We have very good foundations and we have to try to maintain and consolidate that and revert to economic growth and social well-being. Another thing that we have very good is that we have a venture capital very specialized private.
The sector is strategic and an economic engine of Catalonia
But there is a belief that investment funds only seek short-term profitability.
The private capital managers that make venture capital investments in the health sector, the vast majority, are in Catalonia. They have a good sense of smell, they have had a lot of profitability and they have managed to attract international investment into their projects. In fact, today, Catalonia is among the 10 cities in the EMEA region, according to the latest bioregion report, with the most investment in health. Of all these large investments, 93% are venture capital private companies, which were present in 83% of the investments. There are venture capital investors who look for a multiplicative effect and there are some who leave and do not follow up and others who do continue. It is good that they continue because they continue to support the projects. However, whether they stay or leave, in the end they end up putting companies on the path to growth, which is what is important. They help companies to scale, Catalonia is a country of micro-SMEs and SMEs and they have to try to scale and grow.
Are they funds specialized in the health sector?
There is everything. If they are specialized it is fantastic because they understand. There are private investors, more and more, and it is positive, because that shows you that you are doing things right. You have a sector that is robust and profitable and, therefore, people from outside will come to invest, but you also have the large business corporations here that see that there are good transferred science projects playing on the front line and that they are willing to invest. That is very important because what we want is for the growth here to revert to the companies here. If you have very powerful projects, there needs to be a basket rebound for national companies because, in the end, growth is reversed here.
What role do family office Catalans?
The family office They are a pending subject. One of the strategies to attract more investment – even if it costs – is to evangelize general investors, so that they invest in health. It is the proselytizing that we have to do, especially so that there is financing for entrepreneurial projects that can contribute to the productive fabric and improve people’s health. We are lucky to be a sector that has a very close impact on society; This advantage must be taken advantage of.
The sector has to proselytize its impact on society
Take advantage of it? As?
To attract more investment we have to make visible the impact that these projects have on people’s health and quality of life. Make them realize that these projects end up benefiting people and that they reduce the costs of the public health system because their advances contribute to making it more efficient. If we show them, private capital will invest more in the health sector; because there is private capital, and a lot of it.
This would be one of the purposes of Catalonia.Health, but what other challenges are on the table?
At this point we work in several aspects to promote the health ecosystem in Catalonia. What we have to do is strengthen the network of networkingconnect companies and further identify the needs of companies in the sector. Once the needs are known, competitiveness must be promoted through innovation, with different objectives. On the one hand, try to carry out activities that transform the sector because it is clear that we will not be competitive if we make the usual products with the usual solutions… advanced therapies, personalized medicine are examples of the tools with which we can transform and provide new solutions and be more competitive in the global world.
And, on the other hand?
Make the ecosystem compete and be more competitive on a global scale. That is to say, that our infrastructures are the most unique, that our companies are the most technologically leading.
Is this achieved from an entity like Catalonia.Health or is help from governments needed?
We are or want to be the voice of the sector, and we work collaboratively with the public administration, establishing a dialogue on what business policies or policies in the field of innovation, industry, or knowledge we need. The administrations – local and state – take us into account when designing strategies, but we should be a tool to be able to ground innovation in tangible things and define the needs of companies to make it a reality, because we capture them with the voices and the actors in the sector. We know what challenges and what shortcomings they have.
What would these needs be?
Catalonia would have to achieve the technological sovereignty that Europe demands so much. For this milestone, a good projection of the industrial investment policy and R&D infrastructure must be made. You have to have the know how in our house. Therefore, we demand a law on strategic business projects where local, national and international companies established in Catalonia can truly be encouraged. We need tax incentives, subsidies for milestones achieved… a series of measures that make us more competitive in the global environment, but also in the state. Let’s not forget that there are companies that have decided to set up production plants in other places in Spain.
Catalonia needs a law on strategic business projects
Tax incentives?
I will give an example. The wealth tax penalizes entrepreneurs. What we are trying to work with the Generalitat is to differentiate productive assets from unproductive assets; Real estate is not the same as an asset that generates wealth and jobs. Other tax improvements in R&D so that there are deductions in corporate tax. Not to mention the inheritance tax.
Have you mentioned investment in infrastructure, what are they demanding?
Within the sector, we have shortcomings in singular equipment or infrastructure. One of the most important is the bottleneck observed in certification. Health is a highly regulated market to allow the marketing of a product, which requires official certification. But, today, in Spain there is only one accredited body, the Spanish Medicines Agency, on which the National Certification Center depends.
What should be done?
There is good will on the part of the Government and the Generalitat so that there is not only one certification body, but also other different and complementary ones – be they public bodies or approved private entities – that are spread throughout the Spanish territory. Because for companies, start-ups, the entire ecosystem in general, it is essential to be close to a certifying authority so that the procedures are more agile. If you do not have a certifying authority nearby, the temptation is to relocate production to more easily access official bodies. The rest of the European countries have done their homework and have many more certification centers than us. There has to be a combination of public operators – because that provides income to the administration – and private operators that also have room for maneuver and experience to operate.
In the last barometer they have carried out, they determine that 4,000 m² of laboratories for R&D are missing
What we have seen in the annual survey is that between 2,000 and 4,000 square meters of laboratories are missing. We are at a point of certain collapse. In fact, an expansion of the Barcelona Science Park, where we are located, is planned, which would allow us to gain 10,000 m² and free up 2,000 more of the current offices. We hope that it goes ahead with the budgets of the Generalitat.